Dallas gets in midseason form; Carmelo gets in video-game form
Carmelo Anthony, Dime #16
Missing the deadline for Sunday morning’s Smack, Carmelo Anthony had the performance of the NBA preseason so far in a very late-Saturday/early-Sunday tip in Beijing — in the same arena where ‘Melo and Team USA won their ‘08 gold medals. In just 24 minutes of work against the Pacers, ‘Melo dropped 45 points, going 14-of-19 from the field and 16-of-17 from the line. Oh, and he threw in nine rebounds and two blocks. Those are video-game numbers, like playing NBA 2K against the CPU on Easy mode. But then even more amazing than that might have been Indiana’s “defensive” numbers. They had NINE players commit at least four fouls apiece, with Dahntay Jones fouling out in 22 minutes and A.J. Price getting five fouls in limited action. Denver shot 55 free throws … Nene also shined with 21 points (9-13 FT) in just 24 minutes. But on the bright side for the Pacers, Roy Hibbert put up 21 points, nine boards and four blocks, his second beast-like effort against Denver. Danny Granger (8 pts) made a quick nine-minute cameo … The Mavericks look to be in midseason form already: Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry hogging all the buckets, Jason Kidd filling up every other box on the stat sheet, and Josh Howard limping around on a bad ankle. Dirk dropped 26 points in 28 minutes and Jet scored 23 in yesterday’s win over Memphis; Kidd posted five points, six boards, six assists and five steals; and Howard watched it all from the sidelines. If Dirk comes out of the gate this hot in the regular season, get ready for a bunch of tired Samson-related headlines … The Pistons are also establishing a theme early, which involves everything running through Ben Gordon, Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum. Those three took the most FG attempts in yesterday’s win over Atlana, with Gordon (22 pts) and Stuckey (20 pts) cracking a dub and Bynum finishing with 11 points. Stuckey had one play where he drove hard right, stopped in his tracks and sent Mario West diving to the floor like he was on a Slip-N-Slide, then dropped a mid-range J to beat the halftime buzzer. Charlie Villanueva went nuts on the Detroit bench as soon as West fell down and didn’t even pay attention to the buzzer-beater … Paul Pierce turned in his first Truth-like performance of the year, scoring 25 points (8-12 FG) in a win over the Nets. Kevin Garnett had 12 points, six boards and two steals in 21 minutes. Brook Lopez posted 21 points, eight boards and three blocks in the loss, while Yi Jianlian had 20 and eight boards … Honestly, who DIDN’T see DeJuan Blair and the Spurs making everyone else look stupid after the ‘09 Draft? Following a 19-rebound effort in his first preseason game, Blair dropped 28 points (11-13 FG) in 25 minutes against Miami yesterday. How many times do we have to see guys like Leon Powe and Paul Millsap and Brandon Bass and Carl Landry get drafted however-many spots too low before teams get the picture? … Duncan, Ginobili, D-Wade and Jermaine O’Neal all sat this one out; Daqeuan Cook led Miami with 20 points (4 threes) and Michael Beasley scored 16 as the starting power forward … DeMar DeRozan scored 19 in Toronto’s win over the Wizards, while Chris Bosh had eight points in 18 minutes and Amir Johnson had 12 boards and three blocks. Antawn Jamison put up 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Gilbert Arenas had 14 points (4-12 FG) and seven assists … Last night was of course time for another “Sunday Conversation” segment on SportsCenter centered around the Monday Night Football game, which of course meant Stu Scott had to begin his intro by throwing a football to somebody off-camera. Really, it’s like clockwork that this happens every week during football season. How corny would that look on a basketball court? Cheryl Miller starting every TNT segment by making a layup, then putting on her serious face to talk … We’re out like Indy’s defense …
October 12th, 2009 at 2:34 am
John says:
45 ptos in 24 minutes ???
October 12th, 2009 at 2:54 am
The antiJOY says:
melo is ready to join kobe bron and wade in the upper echelon of the league
October 12th, 2009 at 3:30 am
S-SiN says:
Yeah, Melo can fill it up! No shit. Notice the 2K reference in the article with Live banners all over the site. 2K10 is sick, we all know it
October 12th, 2009 at 3:44 am
luckylester says:
Don’t worry, the pacers will be playing Jeff Foster most of those Hibbert minutes come regular season, why invest time in the big man with upside when you can ride Jeff Foster all the way to 36 wins?
Has anybody noticed that the NBA website blows? I don’t know how many times I’ve gotten on that damn thing only for it to take 5 minutes to come up with a box score. I blame David Stern, why not, that guy is a douche bag.
October 12th, 2009 at 3:50 am
ToAn says:
keep it up Melo, you are on my fantasy league team…with the way the new refs are calling fouls, we will see a 60 point game in the first 2 weeks of the season…when lebron, kobe, melo or wade shoots 20-25 free throws it’s easy to get 50 and then it’s just a little step and you have 60
October 12th, 2009 at 4:40 am
Hi Jurg from Denmark says:
hi hi to all from jurgo who today coming from sydney in beautiful australia.
and i love this country so much. i come here to watch great dane crown prince frederick in sailing competition and what a beautiful big harbor for boats to sail. and i can see why prince frederick has a wife from australia because so many beautiful women wearing just singlets. and big jurg much trying so hard to get in bed with some.
and this makes me remember i can put some new tweet on my new tweeter page. so far, only one, but more to come. i was sneaky to put link there on jurgs name in smack. jurgofsten but that is just what mummy call me. ha ha and ha.
a big question for smackers. does mr antony randolph remind u of kevn garnett when he was very young player? i see such same.
from jurgo, hi hi.
October 12th, 2009 at 7:01 am
Josh Tha roc says:
I don’t remember the real jurg ever referring to himself as ‘jurgo’. And he didn’t like us Australians either. Fako more like it.
Anyway amping for the season to start. Hopefully the refs stop trying to demand respect and just call the game.
October 12th, 2009 at 7:08 am
the_don_mega says:
just read an article that Capt. Jack was suspended for cursing at Nellie… put it up DIME…
October 12th, 2009 at 8:14 am
sh!tfaced says:
Capt. Jack also wants to be traded to Cleveland, if given the choice. He would sure be a more than adequate replacement for Delonte.
Substitute insane with crazy. LOL.
And as much as we love to make fun of Big Baby Davis, I think he belongs to the Blair, Bass, Landry and Millsap class type of players draft thievery.
October 12th, 2009 at 8:23 am
92021SpurMD says:
David Stern, the best commissioner the NBA has ever had, is a douchbag? Really? Last I remember, from a marketing, discipline, and overall business standpoint, i’d say this man is, and has been, getting s*** done! Bring the lockout talks all you want, but i’d blame that on players and refs who think they’re worth too much… If I have one gripe, it’s that Stern should switch to the NFL’s “not guaranteed” contracts; people like Ben Wallace, Eddy Curry, and Jermaine O’Neal wouldn’t be dragging their teams down.
October 12th, 2009 at 8:30 am
That's whats up says:
jurg… jurgs-often…. jurg-ofs-ten…..
Who knows what to believe, but the original jurg was funny as hell
Tiddle Pip !!!
October 12th, 2009 at 8:45 am
bdk23 says:
completely off topic is the term commonly reffered to as having big breastss coined as “ti-go bitties” or “tin-go bitties”..me and my buddy at work have been at for over half an hour trying to justify whos right..
October 12th, 2009 at 8:47 am
sans says:
Stu Scott sucks. My cook at work today thought he was Alfonso Bellario asking “WTF is Carlton doing on Sportscenter?”
October 12th, 2009 at 8:48 am
peoples champ says:
they need to send that clown S Jackson to a lottery team let his dsumb ass foul out there. What a prick
October 12th, 2009 at 8:49 am
sans says:
sorry, sorry Alfonso Ribiero…and NBA.com is horrible.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:35 am
schoops says:
Props to Dime’s sponsors (NBA Live) for not being pissed that they only try and sell/talk about the competition’s goods (NBA 2K).
October 12th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Reddi Red says:
it’s “tig ole bitties”! lol
i really want to see Capt Jack come to the Pistons in a trade for Rip.
i know the casual fans probably won’t like it due to the brawl at the palace, but basketball heads would appreciate the set up, plus i think Kuester can coach him and I think S.Jack will put up nice numbers.
Also, Stuckey can be allowed to be more offensive minded like the true 2 he is.
When Will Bynum come off the bench, S.Jack can move to 3 and Ben G. can come in at 2 for an offensive nightmare for other teams.
Make sense? D*mn right! lol
October 12th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Ross says:
I cant wait to watch DuJuan Blair play.
BTW, is there a way to post images in the comments box? Just imagine how cool “Pau’s Labyrinth” would look here:
http://cdn.holytaco.com/www/sites/default/files/images/2009/10/pau-gasol-body.jpg
October 12th, 2009 at 10:22 am
shake&bake says:
Melo giving Dahntay 45 points in 24 minutes…now I can see why Dahntay got out of Denver. He had to deal with that everyday in practice.
October 12th, 2009 at 10:36 am
doc says:
Tig ol,Like Big Old.Melo coming for one of these MVPs,while some suprised he on a crunch time go to guy list.
October 12th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Rodney says:
Red, I don’t think Golden state needs to get any smaller
October 12th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Phileus says:
Kind of related to the Blair thing, is there anyone who doesn’t think that Thabeet will be a bust? He has absolutely no preseason buzz and it seems like, before he’s even played a regular season game, he’s been forgotton.
October 12th, 2009 at 11:31 am
King says:
When the spurs came up in the second me
and like 3 people in the room agreed that there was no way they pass on Blair. After the pick we kept making jokes about how Greg Pop was in the draft room cackling like an old cartoon villian.
How stupid are some GMs he beasted at Pitt on the same knees and they are worried about a HS injury.
October 12th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
jackass says:
dime which game should i buy? i hear live got a huge improvement this year. last year there wasn’t even a comparison between live and 2k. but this year is???
October 12th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Mellmeister says:
Melo has been this good since he entered the NBA, his made for greatness… he was overlooked in his draft class. Over Shadowed by LeBron’s Hype back in ‘03. they didn’t even notice the fact that this dude brought his team to the playoffs in his rookie season (just like D.Wade). He’s right by saying that… he’s consistedly brought his team to the playoffs and just gets overlooked ‘coz they always get off in the first round. Now that he made past it with Chauncey’s Help… People sees him as if he’s just starting now. tsk… Melo ain’t a Rising Star… He’s an OverLooked Superstar on the Verge of Nabbin’ an MVP on his belt…
October 12th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
control says:
Mellmeister
Melo needs you to get off his jock a little bit, he has some asian groupies he needs to get his dick wet on.
October 12th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
bill says:
1. Let Blair play in the NBA first before issuing co-mvp with Melo
2. Melo was always very good but is he great/make his team better/the go to guy on a championship calibre team ala kobe/James/wade. Lets hope so for Denver’s sake considering their lack of external improvement in the off season….
October 12th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Mellmeister says:
control
I’m statin’ facts… plus i got more game than you do.
“i know basketball like how i know what turns your momma on…”
–mellmeister