Some debuts, for all their hype, are ultimately quiet and relatively forgettable. That was not the case for Carmelo Anthony with the New York Knicks last night. Some of the Dime crew was at MSG for Knicks/Bucks, which was almost an entire workday in of itself — the introductory press conference for ‘Melo and Chauncey Billups began at 5 p.m., and the last post-game interview with ‘Melo didn’t wrap up until after 11 p.m. In between, ‘Melo dropped 27 points and 10 rebounds in his NY opener, Chauncey put up 21 points and 8 assists, and the Knicks spoiled Milwaukee’s plans to play spoiler … While Carmelo missed a lot of shots (10-25 FG), he also showed the entire ‘Melo platter: Pull-up jumpers from the elbow, catch-and-shoot threes, driving dunks, bullying drives for layups, impressive passes (when he wanted to) and tough work on the glass (when he wanted to). The Bucks hung around and were only down two midway through the fourth quarter, but New York’s Big Three hit their free throws when it mattered, and Tony Douglas (23 pts) hit a huge trey to give them enough cushion for the storybook ending … Nobody is going to remember it now, but John Salmons was a beast. His late-season switch is officially flipped, and dude is playing like an All-Star after it’s too late to make the All-Star team. Salmons dropped 27 points on an efficient 7-of-14 from the field and 11-of-13 from the line. A lot of talk after the game was about the Knicks’ defensive issues — because the Bucks are not a good offensive team and they slapped up 108 points — and leaving Salmons wide open a couple times was definitely one of them … We were at MSG so long, we barely saw any other games on what was nearly a full schedule for the NBA. In Portland, the Blazers and Lakers went down to overtime. With 1:30 left, Andre Miller hit a baseline J for the lead, but Pau Gasol promptly took LaMarcus Aldridge into the McHale Chamber of Horrors and scored a three-point play in the post to put the Lakers on top. The Blazers turned the ball over on the next possession, Ron Artest got a crucial offensive rebound, and the rest was basically Kobe Bryant (37 pts, 9 rebs, 6 asts, 3 stls) — who’d forced OT with a fadeaway over Wes Matthews in the final seconds of the fourth quarter — hitting a clutch jumper and dagger free throws … Brandon Roy is back. He came off the bench for 15 minutes and scored 5 points, didn’t get to show much explosiveness and knocked down an open three. This has clearly become LMA’s team while B-Roy was out; how will he adapt to the role change while trying to rediscover his game? …Read More>>
In case you missed it, another monster trade went down Wednesday, as Deron Williams was surprisingly sent to New Jersey for Devin Harris, Derrick Favors and two first-round picks. So the Nets finally get their legit All-Star centerpiece, the Jazz get a decent D-Will replacement in Harris and a potential building block in Favors, and the immediate question new becomes: Will Jerry Sloan come back? That would suck for Tyrone Corbin, and basically convict D-Will in the court of public opinion on the charges that he forced Sloan out of Utah, but we wouldn’t mind if Sloan coached Utah forever … Without D-Will in the lineup, the Jazz went to Dallas and got cracked. Earl Watson started at PG and had a modest 7 points and 5 dimes, and he got the ball inside to Al Jefferson (30 pts), but the Jazz were just out of sorts and Dallas is too hot. Dirk Nowitzki‘s 23 points led seven Mavs in double figures, as they won their 14th out of 15 games … Kirk Hinrich and Mike Bibby are trading places, as Hinrich and Hilton Armstrong were dealt from D.C. to Atlanta for Bibby, Mo Evans, Jordan Crawford and a first-round pick. The Hawks desperately needed a PG who can run a little and play D, and while Hinrich may not have the appeal as somebody like Ray Felton, he’s still good. If Bibby even stays in Washington, he’s likely gonna be miserable backing up a rookie (John Wall) on a bad team … Wall put up 21 points and 12 dimes in the Wizards’ game against Philly last night, but they were on the road and they weren’t in Cleveland, so you know how that ended up … Andray Blatche took the court wearing a jersey that said “Baltche” on the back. Baltche-ing sounds like something you would do regularly if you watched the Wizards play every night … And staying with the point guard theme, Baron Davis was traded to Cleveland early this morning Mo Williams. We know Boom Dizzle makes a ton of money and was something of a toxic presence in L.A. earlier this season, but he’d seemed to turn a new leaf after Blake Griffin gave him a reason to get up every morning. Plus, Baron set Blake up lovely for a lot of his highlights. Is Mo going to do that? Weird move for L.A. … Other stat lines from Wednesday: Tony Parker scored 20 points as San Antonio beat Oklahoma City; Kevin Martin (starting) and Chase Budinger (off the bench) scored 30 points apiece to lead Houston past Cleveland; Dwight Howard put up 31 points and 17 rebounds, but Orlando somehow lost to a Tyreke-less Sacramento squad led by Beno Udrih‘s 18 points, 10 assists and 3 steals; Zach Randolph posted 24 points and 10 boards as Memphis beat Minnesota; Chris Paul‘s 19 points and 10 dimes helped New Orleans beat the Clippers; Channing Frye scored 20 points in Phoenix’s win over Atlanta; Tyler Hansbrough had 21 points and 12 rebounds as Indiana edged Detroit; and DeMar DeRozan and Andrea Bargnani each scored 24 points as Toronto upset Chicago, who got 32 and 10 dimes from Derrick Rose, and 16 boards from Joakim Noah in his return from injury … We’re out like Blake’s alley-oop partner …
