Nuggets-Knicks Preview

By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO
Posted Jan 21 2012 12:28AM

Carmelo Anthony spent seven-plus seasons as the driving force behind the Denver Nuggets.

They don't seem to be missing him much, while Anthony's frustration in New York is becoming apparent.

Anthony will face the Nuggets on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden for the first time - and only time in this lockout-shortened season - since being dealt to his hometown Knicks.

Anthony lived up to the hype of being the third overall pick by Denver (11-5) in the 2003 draft, instantly turning the franchise into a playoff team following a 17-65 season. The forward led the Nuggets into the postseason in each of his seven full seasons, including a run to the Western Conference finals in 2008-09 when they fell to the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.

His impressive run ended last February when the Nuggets dealt the four-time All-Star to New York (6-9) in a stunning three-team, 13-player trade.

Denver reached the playoffs without Anthony - losing to Oklahoma City - and is 29-12 in the regular season since the trade.

That success can be credited to the deal, as one of the players the Nuggets landed was Danilo Gallinari. The forward is averaging 16.2 points on the season, ranking second on the team behind Ty Lawson's 16.4.

"I think the one thing that (happened to) guys when 'Melo left, Ty and Arron (Afflalo) got more excited about their opportunity," coach George Karl told the team's official website. "That's what happens in trades. Trades open up windows of opportunities."

Gallinari and Lawson had 21 points each while Al Harrington - another former Knick - had a season-high 29 in Friday's 108-104 win at Washington.

The Nuggets have won three in a row, one shy of their season high from earlier this month.

Gallinari is looking forward to a return to New York, where he spent two-plus seasons after being drafted sixth overall in 2008.

"This is going to be a nice game," Gallinari said. "Last year, the first thing that I looked at when I got traded was when are we going to play in New York. Yeah, it's going to be an exciting game."

While the Nuggets are thriving, Anthony is growing frustrated with the Knicks' struggles.

Anthony is among the league leaders with 25.7 points per game, but New York has been a major disappointment so far this season.

The Knicks lost their fifth straight Friday, falling 100-86 at home to Milwaukee - which came in 0-8 on the road - despite Anthony scoring 35 points.

Anthony, however, was ejected with 1:33 left after picking up his second technical foul following a confrontation with the Bucks' Brandon Jennings, who apparently made a hand gesture after a 3-pointer.

"I don't like to be punked out there so I think that's where the frustration just set in and it started trickling down," Anthony said. "Maybe it was my fault that the frustration set in and I apologized to my teammates for that, but I don't like being in them situations like that. I don't know how to handle those punking situations too well."

New York's struggles may be attributed to the trade with Denver, as it dealt most of its depth while also acquiring guard Chauncey Billups, whom it waived prior to this season to free up salary cap space for Tyson Chandler.

That's left the Knicks with little offensive firepower beyond Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, the latter of whom is averaging 18.1 points and 7.8 rebounds after posting 25.3 and 8.3, respectively, last season.

Stoudemire was booed after missing one easy putback in the second half Friday before finishing with 15 points and 11 boards.

The Knicks are averaging 93.0 points, including 88.4 while hitting 38.7 percent from the floor over the last five games. Those averages are a far cry from their Eastern Conference-leading 106.5 points per game in 2010-11.

"We're just not sharp and it looks like our legs are deader than the other guys," coach Mike D'Antoni said. "It looks like they're running circles around us a lot of times."

The Knicks and Nuggets split two meetings last season, with each team winning at home.

Nuggets beat Anthony, Knicks in 2 overtimes

By BRIAN MAHONEY
Posted Jan 22 2012 2:02AM

NEW YORK (AP) Carmelo Anthony sat silently at his locker, wondering if it was time to rest his aching body, or even shoot less.

Wishing he was still in Denver never crossed his mind.

"Expectations are still high. Things will still be great," he said. "I'm not down, I'm not regretting anything. I'm not regretting the trade."

And certainly neither are the Nuggets.

Danilo Gallinari outplayed Anthony in the first meeting since they were swapped in a blockbuster trade, scoring a career-high 37 points as the Nuggets outlasted the New York Knicks 119-114 in double-overtime on Saturday night.

"It's special not just for me but I think for everybody," said Gallinari, who was loudly cheered. "Whenever you come to the Garden to play, you always find extra motivation and it's always special."

Al Harrington, another former Knicks forward, scored 22 of his 24 points after halftime for the Nuggets, allowing them to withstand Anthony's attempt to rally the Knicks after his poor shooting had them behind until the final minutes of regulation.

Anthony finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds, missing 20 of 30 shots in the Knicks' sixth straight loss. He missed 14 of his first 17 shots and heard boos, then made his final four of regulation to nearly help New York pull it out.

"I hope it works out for him," Harrington said. "I love him like he's a brother of mine. You know I'd hate to see anybody, especially in New York, you can suffer if you don't win. I hope they turn it around."

Anthony, who spent the first 7 1/2 years of his career with the Nuggets before they granted him a trade, was on his way to a nightmare first game against them. He threw away a pass that Gallinari turned into the tiebreaking layup with 5:19 left in regulation, committed an offensive foul on his next possession that Nene followed with a dunk for a four-point lead, and Denver was up six with under 2 1/2 minutes remaining.

But Anthony finally got going with some drives to the basket, and after Gallinari managed only one free throw with 7.3 seconds left, Anthony made a jumper with three defenders around him to tie it at 98 with 1.7 seconds to go.

His 3-pointer with 2:33 left in the first OT snapped a 100-all tie, and after Andre Miller tied it with a desperation 3 to beat the shot clock, Anthony knocked in a jumper to put New York back ahead with 1:02 remaining. It stayed that way until Nene was fouled grabbing the rebound of Anthony's missed jumper with 9.2 seconds left, making both free throws to tie it again.

Anthony lost the ball out of bounds with 0.3 seconds left, and the Knicks dodged a bullet when Miller's lob pass to an unguarded Corey Brewer hit the rim and bounced away, setting up another OT.

The Knicks led for the final time at 111-110 on Anthony's jumper with 1:38 to play, but Gallinari made two free throws and Harrington hit a 3-pointer from the corner to make it 115-111 with 46 seconds to go.

Nene had 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Nuggets, who played without starting guard Arron Afflalo because of a groin injury. Miller started for him and had 14 points and 12 assists as Denver won its fourth straight and improved to 7-0 against the Eastern Conference.

Anthony has been bothered by a sore left wrist for more than week, perhaps contributing to his awful shooting in that stretch. He was frustrated enough to get ejected from Friday's loss to Milwaukee, and he was booed in the second half of this one as jumpers kept clanging off the rim. He's just 41 for 116 (35 percent) in his last five games and said afterward he might need to pass up some shots, or even talk to the team doctors and decide if he needs to rest.

"When you're missing shots and they're right there and they're not going in, you say `Maybe the next one, maybe the next one.' That's kind of the mentality that you have," he said. "But maybe I need to stop shooting a lot, I don't know. It's just a bunch of stuff that goes through my mind right now."

Besides Gallinari, the Knicks' lottery pick in 2008, the Nuggets also got Timofey Mozgov, Raymond Felton and Wilson Chandler, who all were among the Knicks' top six players. That's a lot to give up even for a potent scorer like Anthony - too much, many Knicks fans thought, and there were reports former team president Donnie Walsh did, too, but he was overruled by Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan.

The lack of depth has been crippling this season, where the Knicks have no reliable scorer beyond Anthony and Amare Stoudemire. The Nuggets, meanwhile, thrive because of their balance, with a number of players capable of leading them in scoring.

And though Denver general manager Masai Ujiri said after the deal that the Nuggets "got killed," they've been much better since the deal. Denver is 30-12 in the regular season since the trade, while New York fell to just 20-24.

Anthony chatted with coach George Karl for about five minutes before the game in the Denver locker room. One of the topics of their talk: the fact they hadn't talked since the trade.

"I told him my philosophy is usually sometimes it's best to wait about six, seven, eight months and next time we see each other we should go to dinner," Karl said. "And I think we will."

Landry Fields and Iman Shumpert each scored 18 points for the Knicks, but Stoudemire took just nine shots and finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

"We had a chance to win, it's all about winning with me," Stoudemire said. "It's not about numbers, it's not about shots. It's just about winning. So we had a chance to win, we had momentum going, just couldn't pull it out."

New York led by 12 in the first half but gave it all away with a poor third quarter, which ended tied at 72. The Knicks lost rookie reserve Josh Harrellson to a fractured right wrist. He will need surgery and is expected to miss six weeks after that.

Notes: The Knicks don't play in Denver this season. Anthony had been hoping to get that trip out of the way without having to wait until next year. ... Jeremy Lin had 28 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds, and Jerome Jordan scored 26 points as Erie beat Maine 122-113 on Friday night in the NBA Development League. Lin and Jordan were the first D-League assignments in Knicks history. ... Boxing champion Miguel Cotto, Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia and former Mets catcher Mike Piazza were seated courtside.

Notebook: Nuggets 119, Knicks 114

By Adam Zagoria, for NBA.com
Posted Saturday January 21, 2012 11:46PM

THE FACTS: Playing against his former team for the first time since he was dealt in the Carmelo Anthony trade last February, Danilo Gallinari scored a career-high 37 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as the Denver Nuggets won their fourth straight road game, 119-114 in double-overtime, over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks have now dropped six straight.

Three former Knicks combined for 77 points, highlighted by Gallinari, who went 18-for-20 from the line.

Al Harrington, who left New York as a free agent in 2010, scored 22 of his 24 points in the second half and the overtime periods, including a key 3-pointer with 1:05 left in the second OT to make it 115-11.

Timofey Mozgov, one of four key Knicks dealt for Anthony, added a career-high 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting.

Anthony hit a fadeaway jumper with 1.7 seconds left in regulation to force the first overtime and finished with 25 points on 10-for-30 shooting to go with 10 rebounds.

QUOTABLE: "It was great. I want to thank all the New York fans for the ovation they gave me."
-- Gallinari on getting cheered when he was introduced.

THE STAT: Gallinari scored nine points in the second overtime -- going 7-for-7 from the foul line -- as the Nuggets outscored the Knicks 14-9.

QUOTABLE II: " Six straight is never easy. It's never easy losing six straight."
-- Amar'e Stoudemire

TURNING POINT: After Anthony put the Knicks up 111-110 in the second OT, the Nuggets went on a 7-0 run -- highlighted by Harrington's fourth 3-pointer and three foul shots from Ty Lawson -- to push it to 117-110.

WHO'S HOT: Knicks wing Billy Walker went for a season-high 15 to give a big boost off the bench. The Knicks bench has struggled for much of the season. En route to 13 first-half points, Walker was 5-for-5, including 3-for-3 from beyond the arc.

WHO'S NOT: Stoudemire continues to struggle for the Knicks, scoring 12 points on 4-for-9 shooting with 11 rebounds.

QUOTABLE III: "I don't know. They don't pay me to make those assumptions or to figure those things out. I hope it work out for them, though, because I hate to see anybody suffer, especially in New York you can suffer if you don't win."
-- Harrington on the Knicks

NOTABLE: D'Antoni said point guard Baron Davis could possibly return next week during the team's four-game road trip. "It's hard to say, 'Yeah, he'll be ready a week from today,'' D'Antoni said pre-game. "But he's getting closer."

NOTABLE II: Karl and Anthony spoke briefly before the game and the Nuggets coach said he wishes his former star the best. "Melo's a good person," Karl said. "He's a good person. I think we had many good moments. I'm proud to say I was one of his coaches and hopefully he feels I helped him get to a higher level because I coached him."

INSIDE THE ARENA: Former Mets catcher Mike Piazza was in the house and predicted that the Giants would beat the 49ers, 21-17, in Sunday's NFC Championship Game.

UP NEXT: For the Knicks, Tuesday @ Charlotte, Wednesday @ Cleveland, Friday @ Miami. For the Nuggets, Wednesday @ Sacramento, Friday vs. Toronto, Jan. 29 vs. Clippers.

• Nuggets: Afflalo, Carroll
• Knicks: Davis, Jordan, Lin

• Nuggets: --
• Knicks: Stoudemire

• Lead Changes: 12
• Times Tied: 14

• Arena: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
• Officials: #13 Monty McCutchen, #27 Dick Bavetta, #34 Kevin Cutler
• Attendance: 19763
• Duration: 3:04