Oh well. We’ve tried to make excuses for Carmelo Anthony since this season started. We were confident in our stance after ‘Melo jilted the Cavs’ honeymoon homecoming in Cleveland for LeBron James, but since then it’s been one loss after another, with Anthony squandering contested games with contested jumpers in the closing minutes. His defense on a Rudy Gay breakaway early in last night’s OT loss to the Kings might signal the death knoll of our belief the ‘Cuse title winner can figure it out this season — his twelfth in the Association.
Here’s the play in question, which occurred early in the game, but led to a stampede of ‘Melo grazing on Twitter — with the hive mind tearing into his $124 million carcass:
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In the play, Anthony’s about even with Gay when he gives up on getting back to stop him. It looks even worse because Pablo Prigioni, who trails ‘Melo after the turnover, keeps hustling and tries to swipe the ball down low on the attempt. No soup on the swipe — but Prigioni’s hustle juxtaposes Anthony’s inertia even more.
‘Melo scored a team-high 36 points last night, let it not be forgotten, but it took him 29 shots to get there and he connected on less than 45 percent of those attempts. Yes, he also tied for the team lead with six dimes — another area of his game that’s been wrung for Twitter fodder when Basketball Twitter grows tired of baiting the Kobe sycophants — and he always seems to play hard when we have had a light dinner and can stomach a Knicks game. But the play above seems like a microcosm of this year’s Knicks team, led by their new free agency hire a lot of Knicks fans weren’t so cozy with over the summer.
There’s an overused line from Dylan Thomas about not going gentle into the good night. This Knicks season is a bad night, but ‘Melo has been lulled into playing like a offensive dilettante after all the early-season losing. He’s going quietly into the night, which is just pissing Knicks fans off even more. If there’s any group of people who will rage against the dying of the light, it’s Knicks fans — ask JD.
What do you think?
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