THUNDER JOURNAL:
Anthony looks sharp, makes history during game,
Carmelo Anthony was rested, and it showed. Early, anyway. Anthony scored 23 points in Tuesday’s 122-112 Thunder loss to the Houston Rockets, riding a hot start to some first-half history. And though he and his Oklahoma City teammates faded late, Anthony made a memory early.
With his second 3-point basket and eighth point of the first quarter, Anthony passed Jerry West — the model for the NBA logo — for 20th place on the league’s all-time scoring list. The basket gave Anthony 25,195 career points, passing West’s 25,192.
Anthony would have preferred the milestone come in a win, he said. He called
it “an honor” regardless.
“To be 20 in the history of this game, that’s something that I never, ever growing up ever dreamed of,” Anthony said. “To be in this situation right now and still have years to go in this league is definitely a blessing for me.”
Next up on the all-time list: Reggie Miller, who scored 25,279 career points.
Anthony entered Tuesday having scored 14 or fewer points in four straight games. He had 19 by halftime against the Rockets.
Anthony was back in the starting lineup after missing the loss in Portland, the second of back-to-back games on Oklahoma City’s road trip.
It’s unclear if he’ll rest in more games going forward, but the Thunder wants to keep the 33-year-old fresh for its late-season games and the playoffs.
Anthony had veto power over the rest decision, Thunder coach Billy Donovan said before Tuesday’s game, saying that if Anthony had said, “No, I feel good, I want to play,” OKC “would have played him” against Portland. But Donovan stressed that didn’t mean Anthony felt badly before the game.
Rest and playing time are a collaborative decision, with Anthony, Donovan and the Thunder medical staff having discussions.
“We want to be sensitive,” Donovan said. “He’s logged a lot of minutes in his career, he’s played a lot of games, and you want to make sure every game as you’re coming down the stretch he’s feeling good physically. That’s really what you want to be able to do, so you just talk about it.”
Brewer: Rocket man
Corey Brewer entered Tuesday night with eight 3-pointers in 55 games this season.
The newly acquired Thunder forward made two in the first half against the Rockets.
And maybe that shouldn’t have been a surprise.
Brewer, who was bought out by the Los Angeles Lakers, made two of his eight 3-pointers for his old team in a Dec. 20 win against Houston.
Brewer was 2 for 3 from long range in that game, scoring a season-high 21 points.
“He doesn’t shoot well from 3, but I think the game we played against them, the Lakers, he made every one of them, which really ticks me off,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said before Tuesday’s game. “And he single-handedly beat us that game. He’s a big-game guy.”
D’Antoni coached Brewer last season in Houston and called him “one of my favorite players” and “one of the funniest guys of alltime.”
Brewer finished the game with 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting and went 2 for 6 from 3-point range.
D’Antoni gives thanks
D’Antonio opened his pregame media availability with a thank-you to the Betes Bros foundation, an Oklahoma City-based diabetes support group that he said “really helped out with the aftermath” of Hurricane Harvey in Houston last fall. The group sent “a couple truckloads of stuff,” D’Antoni said.
“They went beyond,” D’Antoni said. “There was a lot of diabetic stuff that they sent. I thought it was really cool.”