1. Carmelo Anthony
Position: Small Forward
Age: 32 (5/29/1984)
Experience: 14th Season
2016-17 Slash Line: .421/.327/.865
2016-17 Season Averages: 34.2 MPG, 22.0 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 2.8 APG, 1.0 SPG, 1.9 3PM
The New York Knicks rested Carmelo Anthony against the Golden State Warriors due to what was reported as a shoulder injury. He’d struggled in recent games and many hypothesized that sitting Anthony against Golden State was a precautionary measure to help him find his rhythm.
Though he missed Thursday’s game against the Golden State Warriors with a shoulder injury, Ian Begley of ESPN New York reports that he expects to play against Denver.
Carmelo Anthony expects to play Saturday against the Nuggets: https://t.co/F6dXCS2jWw
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) December 16, 2016
No one needs to be better against Anthony’s former team than Anthony himself.
In the first game following Phil Jackson’s controversial comments, Anthony went off for 33 points against the Sacramento Kings. In the two games that followed, however, he scored a combined 26 points on 7-of-31 shooting from the field and 0-of-6 shooting from distance.
Anthony tallied 14 rebounds and 12 assists between those two games, but his uncharacteristically horrific shooting was clearly concerning.
Anthony will look to rediscover his form against the team he played for between 2003 and 2011: the Denver Nuggets. That could be exactly what he needs, as the six-time All-NBA honoree has a career average of 25.6 points per game against the Nuggets.
Regardless of what’s transpired in the past, Anthony will be the player whom the Knicks need to step up and shine in the present after taking Thursday’s game off.
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Anthony has called the encounter with the Nuggets a must-win game. It’s hard to disagree.