Around basketball: Melo finds his groove ... Expect a whole lot of trade Love
It took Carmelo Anthony and the Portland Trail Blazers a bit to get used to each other. The Blazers lost their first three games after signing the veteran before he hit for 25 points in a win over Chicago. One of the great narrative aspects of Anthony’s return was that he would get a chance to leave the NBA on his terms, rather than the way he left early last season when he was unceremoniously released by Houston early. But that’s not how Anthony sees it. “This ain’t a damn farewell tour,” he told the Athletic this week. “My love for the game don’t stop. I don’t know where this farewell-tour thing came from. I’ve never talked about a farewell tour. I know what I can do and I believe in myself. When a farewell tour comes, it comes. That’s not something I think about. I’m not thinking about retiring right now. I had (thought about it) during this past stretch over the summer. But ain’t no retiring in my mind. I believe in what I have left.”
á Ready to go? When the real NBA trade season gets into full swing, when teams bail on this season or decide they need one piece to have a legitimate shot at success, one of the names you’ll hear bandied about a lot is Kevin Love of the Cavaliers. He’s a 12-year veteran on a goingnowhere team but also averaging 17.9 points and 11.8 rebounds per game and shooting about 36 per cent from three-point range. He can still play. Maybe too well for a Cleveland team that needs a high draft pick, but certainly well enough to help a contender. And he’s philosophical about what the next few months might hold. “I’m just going to let the chips fall,” Love said. “I know that this is a young team. I think I can help them. I’m going to do right by Cleveland, the organization. This is a league where teams want to rebuild, teams want to go young but certain teams are looking for a piece, a guy who’s played in the Finals ... I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I think it definitely lessens the burden and the anxiety.”
> Managing that load: Kawhi Leonard missed his sixth game with the Los Angeles Clippers this season when injury management of his sore left knee kept him out of a Wednesday game in Memphis. He sat out two games on back-to-backs early in the season and has missed four with the knee soreness. The Clippers are 3-3 without him in the lineup and 11-3 when he plays. Information for other publications, wire services and websites was used in the compilation of this report.