Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks Finally Show Some Heart; Jay-Z is a Kentucky Fan

Earlier in the day on Monday, Carmelo Anthony characterized last night’s Knicks/Magic game as an “almost must win” for New York. Then he and his teammates went out and played with a desperate urgency that’s been lacking, well, since ‘Melo showed up in NYC and outlasted Orlando in overtime, 113-106 … Carmelo wasn’t just his team’s leading scorer last night, he was a true leader. He went for a game-high 39 points, attacked the glass (10 rebounds), and even sort of looked to pass to teammates before he got bogged down over-dribbling or holding the ball. And on top of that, he was busting his ass on defense. There were whole sequences where Carmelo was all over Ryan Anderson (!) when Anderson had the ball at half court. ‘Melo was moving his feet, fighting for positioning, boxing out, the whole nine … The bad part for Knicks fans is obvious: Why the hell doesn’t he do that all the time? Mike Breen and Clyde were beside themselves. They were clearly happy with the way ‘Melo was playing, but repeatedly pointed out that they couldn’t understand why that type of effort isn’t a regular thing … ‘Melo had a little edge to him last night too – maybe the physical play was getting to him. In overtime, he got tangled up on the floor with Jason Richardson fighting for a loose ball. Anthony got up first and pushed J-Rich back down to the floor. Richardson responded by grabbing ‘Melo’s foot and tripping him as he tried to run down the court. The MSG crowd responded by serenading J-Rich with chants of “A**-hole! A**-hole!” … One of the Dime Crew was at the game last night. During pre-game, someone asked Dwight Howard where he got his V-MODA headphones and he responded with, “Some Russian millionaire” … In the Magic locker room after the game, Dwight was loudly signing the National Anthem, and Brandon Bass eventually joined in. One of the happier locker rooms we’ve been in after a loss … Earl Clark told us that he plays Gilbert Arenas one-on-one for sneakers all the time. He showed us a brand new pair of black Jordans that he won off of Gil earlier in the day and said that Arenas is pretty much responsible for all of the shoes he owns … Read More: The Celtics are wilting, Derrick Rose & Co. are upset, and Jay-Z is a Kentucky fan…

Things are not going well for the Boston Celtics. They have not been good at all this entire month, with losses to the Clippers, Sixers, Nets, Rockets, Grizzlies, Bobcats, and now, the Pacers (not to mention coming scary close to losing to the T-Wolves on Sunday). With KG, Nenad Krstic and Glen Davis the only healthy bigs for the Celtics, they got dominated by Roy Hibbert (26 points) in a 107-100 loss to Indy. How many Boston fans across the country are now in an auto-pilot, steady-complaining state about how dumb it was to trade Kendrick Perkins? … In case you missed it yesterday, Kentucky‘s Darius Miller tweeted this picture of Jay-Z visiting the Wildcats’ locker room after their big win over UNC to go to the Final Four:

The Sixers have been catching hell in Philly after it was revealed that a bunch of them were out way late at a Lil Wayne show on Saturday night, with a noon game against the Kings the next day (The Sixers lost and played like trash). Philly bounced back last night, taking out the Bulls in Chicago, 97-85. They were up 23 on the Bulls at one point, but Chicago turned up the defense in the second half and clawed back in behind Derrick Rose‘s 31 points to make it a tight game, but it was too little too late … Somehow, a depleted Charlotte Bobcats squad survived big games from Brandon Jennings (26 points) and Andrew Bogut (26 points) to beat the Bucks, 87-86. It definitely helps that Milwaukee missed their final 11 shots of the game, including a Jennings layup with under 15 seconds to go that could have won it for the Bucks … In other games, Portland beat an injury-ravaged Spurs team that was missing Tim Duncan, Manu and Tony Parker, 100-92; John Wall had 28 in an overtime W over the Jazz … We’re out like always bringing it.

×