SHOOTING STARS
Top scorers Durant, Melo go toe-to-toe
MIKE WOODSON may shudd shudder the next time he’s in invited for tea with James Dolan and Carmelo Anthon Anthony.
But o on Sunday, when Anthony and an the Knicks visit the Oklahoma Oklahom City Thunder, another mee meeting of big shots will be on display. disp
And the th fireworks that follow could eclipse e any story-lines currently engulfing en the Knicks — mainly if Woodson W can keep his job past the All-Star break.
On Wednesday, Wed a high-level meeting meetin between Dolan, the Madison Madis Square Garden chairman, chairman and Anthony took place to discuss Woodson’s future, futur as first reported by the th Daily News. They didn’t didn’ break bread but they did sip on tea, Anthony reported. ported But why focus on the nega negative when Sunday’s 1 p.m. start sta could be an offensive explosion for the ages, especially if AnA thony ta takes the meeting meet with Kevin Dur Durant (minus the tea) as a a personal challenge?
For t the first time this season, the league’s best shotmakers will square off, putting all the t behind-the-scene maneuvering on the backburner. Durant D currently leads the league leagu in scoring at 31 points a game g while Anthony is second at a 27.4 points.
The two have combined to win the pa past four scoring titles, with Durant Duran winning three and Anthony claiming cla last year. Since Russell Westbrook We went down with a right knee injury on Dec. 25 against the Knicks, Durant has never been better, scoring 40 or more m points five times, including a 54-point effort on Jan. 17 against Golden State. He scored 30 or more points for 12 straight games last month. “Oh, spectacular se season,” Anthony said of Durant following Friday’s 117-90 rout of Denver that halted halt the Knicks’ threegame skid. “Just top to bottom, everything he’s doing, the th way guys are actually putting him in po position to succeed. He keeps getting better. That’s T something that I love about him. He keeps getting better. He works hard ard and he’s going to continue getting better in n this league.”
Anthony has been just as good, averaging 32.3 points on 49% shooting over his past ast 10 games, including a franchise-record anchise-record 62 points on Jan. 24 against Charlotte, arlotte, the team the Knicks nicks trail by two games mes for the eighth and final playoff spot in the he Eastern Conference.
“Again, they hey got to guard Melo and our crew, too,” Woodson said of the Thunder hunder following Friday’s win. “When en we are clicking, ng, we are a pretty y hard team to guard ard as well when we are making shots.” ts.”
But the spotlight will be on Durant and d Anthony. And it’s the first time that at Durant and Anthony ny will face off this season, ason, since Anthony was nursing an ankle injury and didn’t suit up the last time they played, a 123-94 drubbing b bing by the Thunder that was the most st dominant road win ever by an NBA team on Christmas Day.
The last time ime that Anthony and Durant met on n April 7, 2013, the Knicks prevailed, 125-120, 25-120, with Anthony outscoring Durant rant 36 to 27 to take over sole possession sion of the league’s scoring lead. But Durant urant and Anthony have not scored 30 or more points apiece in a headto-head matchup t chup since 2009, according to Basketball-Reference.com. Reference.com.
The Thunder nder (40-12), which currently leads the Western estern Conference, is 17-7 since Westbrook went down. He’s not expected back until after fter the All-Star break.
As for how ow to defend Durant, J.R. Smith offered this strategy on Friday: “Try to get the ball out of (Durant’s) Durant’s) hands as much as possible and contain everybody else.”
The Knicks icks have been horrendous in weekend matinees this season, losing to San Antonio tonio on Nov. 10 by 31 points, to Boston on Dec. 8 by 41 and to the Thunder on Christmas Day by 29. But Anthony doesn’t expect ect motivation to be a problem on Sunday. “We e should be used to it by now, playing in New York, noon games or 1 and 2 o’clock games,” he said. “If you don’t get up for games like that then n something is wrong with you.”
Mabramson@nydailynews.com