CARMELO CAN THANK HEAVEN
Melo escapes hell, Knicks on way there
OKLAHOMA CITY — Carmelo Anthony didn’t get 40 on the Knicks, although there were moments, like when he missed a dunk for example, when Anthony moved like a guy about to turn 40. Hey, give Anthony some time to work out the kinks with his new squad. And this “Super Team” stuff takes time as well, unless of course you’re the Golden State Warriors. They’re an outlier. But the Oklahoma City Thunder, much like Anthony’s offensive game, is a work in progress. Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo have a lot of work ahead of them but the immediate future definitely has potential. The Knicks are another story altogether. A new era for both Anthony and the Knicks began like you would expect: two franchises headed in opposite directions this season. The Thunder, with Westbrook recording a triple-double, opened a big lead in the second half and cruised to a 105-84 victory.
“That chapter is closed,” Anthony said of his tenure in New York. “No more Knicks talk.”
Anthony’s final words about his last year with the Knicks under Phil Jackson were tweeted out hours before tipoff. “You Watched Me Walk Through Hell, Now Watch me Walk Up Out of It,” he shared on Twitter with an image of himself in his OKC jersey.
We always knew last season was hell for Anthony. Only now is he admitting it.
With his wife and son seated courtside, Anthony, 33, began the next phase of his Hall of Fame career by scoring 22 points on 20 shots. He made his first shot — a three over Kristaps Porzingis — but Anthony also had his shot blocked by the 7-foot-3 Latvian and later butchered a dunk.
It was an average game for Anthony at best. But he was still better than a bag of chips.
Maybe it was nerves, or perhaps Carmelo was simply anxious to impress the home crowd in his Oklahoma City debut while also taking out his frustrations on his former team. But in the season opener before a national television audience, we didn’t get the signature Carmelo performance.
He didn’t have a lot of those games last season for the Knicks either. Jackson never put the right pieces around Anthony to even get the Knicks into the playoffs. Jackson then spent all of last season trying to run Anthony out of town, hence Anthony famously saying that Jackson was willing to “trade me for a bag of chips.”
Oklahoma City isn’t New York, obviously. From a basketball standpoint, the difference now is that Anthony is surrounded by two perennial All Stars, Westbrook and George, who will take pressure off of Anthony. He hasn’t had talent close to this in five years, since the Knicks won 54 games and Anthony finished third in the MVP voting. That was also the same year when the Knicks reached the second round of the playoffs. That’s ancient history now.
The Thunder is a playoff team, but in the deep and talented Western Conference they will face challenges from the Warriors, Rockets and Spurs. But they can be lethal offensively. Westbrook, the reigning MVP who averaged a triple-double last season, put up 21 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds in his first game. George scored a team-high 28, but he and Anthony relied too much on long jumpers. The two shot a combined 7-for-21 on threes. The Knicks as a team went 7-for-24.
Anthony’s old team played well at times but the Knicks need better guard play out of their starting backcourt — Ramon Sessions and Courtney Lee — or more precisely, better guards in their starting backcourt. The Knicks were a minus-23 with Sessions on the floor, a minus-22 with Lee and a minus-17 with Porzingis, who scored 31 points with 12 rebounds. His length gave Anthony trouble at the other end of the court.
Jeff Hornacek picked up a technical foul at the end of the first half for arguing a no-call on George, who stole the ball from Porzingis and dunked at the buzzer.
Hornacek raced onto the court and began berating referee Tyler Ford. The result was a technical foul, the Knicks’ second of the first half.
Courtney Lee was also booked for directing profanity at Ford, moments after Anthony escaped punishment for using the same fourletter word.
And no, that word wasn’t Phil.