Carmelo Anthony‘s return to New York went fairly well, all things considered. The former Knick was cheered by the team’s fans and even got a tribute video before he was announced as a starter during pregame introduction. Considering how the environment around a star returning to where they used to play can sometimes be acrimonious (as the Thunder saw with Paul George’s return to Indiana), this was cool to see.
As for the game itself, it could not have gone much worse for Anthony. He scored 12 points on 5-for-18 shooting, and the Knicks were able to beat the Thunder handily, 111-96. The Knicks pulled off that lopsided victory despite the fact that Kristaps Porzingis did not play.
In his absence, New York needed someone to provide a scoring punch and replace the production of their young superstar that averages 25.5 points per game. That punch ended up coming from Michael Beasley, who tied his season high of 30 points and shot an incredibly efficient 11-for-18 from the field.
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/942241506349453312
Beasley has always had this type of scoring ability, his issue has always been doing it consistently. He received some criticism when he compared himself to Anthony earlier this year, but Beasley was right that they’re similar types of players in that they’re both forwards who are capable of going off on any given night.
The difference, of course, is that Anthony has done it his entire career, whereas Beasley has kind of been considered a bust ever since coming into the league with an insane amount of hype. He’s never been awful, necessarily, it’s just that he never lived up to the reputation of being the No. 1 recruit in America and the No. 2 draft pick in 2007.
But as Saturday night showed, when Beasley is locked in, he legitimately a world-class scorer. If he finds a way to be able to do this on a nightly (or even semi-regular basis), he would give the Knicks a scoring punch on the wing and further fill the hole left by Anthony’s departure. It seems like a longshot for that to come to fruition, but Saturday night provided a glimmer of hope that Beas can legitimately be a key role player for the Knicks.
