Carmelo’s Triumphant Return Beats His Old Squad; Tracy McGrady’s Elbow Floors An Opponent

The return of Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks’ lineup kicked into overdrive in the fourth quarter. That’s when he and Jason Kidd turned a game between a sluggish New York team and a Denver team that had a hard time missing (56 percent in the game) into another Knicks home win. They’re undefeated at the Garden after the 112-106 win, and sure, you can point to ‘Melo’s 34 points, several of which came in a 17-2 run in the fourth quarter that flipped the script on the Knicks’ fortunes with Rasheed Wallace sitting and unable to provide the same energy. Anthony’s big buckets in his first home win against his former team were just that, so there’s no shame in seeing those as game-changers. Don’t forget the way New York’s work on the defensive glass minimized its vulnerability, too. Denver got just five offensive boards and the Manimal, Kenneth Faried, had only seven boards. He’s grabbed 15 percent of available offensive boards when he plays but in this game it was zip, zero, and his total rebound percentage was down about four percentage points from his average, too. Checking Steve Novak out on the wings was a factor there. … Kidd tried to cover up a cut on his head with the world’s most awkward headband already this season. After an elbow to the head from Ty Lawson in the first half he decided, screw it, let’s go all out and shot around at halftime wearing a NY Rangers helmet. … This GIF is all you need to know about how the Lakers played against Utah. That clip of Jack Nicholson is very real, just like the Lakers’ remarkably consistent inconsistency. For the 10th time this season, Kobe Bryant had a huge night by getting 34 points, but it came via the “old” Kobe who shot in volume (9-of-24), not the efficiency master 34-year-old we’d seen so much this year. For the ninth time in that span, the Lakers lost. … DeMarre Carroll‘s spinning layup on a behind-the-back pass on a Utah break was the best play of the game but Utah fans might like this even better: Enes Kanter only played 18 minutes but he got 14 points and six boards in that span. … Russell Westbrook jumped too early and still got one of the best blocks of the year in OKC’s 104-93 win over Indianapolis. On the way own, Westbrook (21 points, seven and six) caught Roy Hibbert‘s jump perfectly and the resulting crash felled Hibbert (10 points and six boards) like an old-growth tree. It seemed to be a microcosm of Hibbert’s year so far after signing his max deal in the offseason. … Andrew Nicholson impressed us with his Beast Mode performance to get St. Bonaventure to the NCAA tourney last March and with his play in Summer League, too. But even for a player seemingly more mentally and physically mature than his peers, this season hasn’t been kind. That’s why it was heartening to see him not only get 19 points in a 98-90 road win over Phoenix, but nine of them in the fourth quarter. … … Hit the jump to hear about T-Mac’s elbow in the Far East ….

Tracy McGrady, despite playing on a team that’s now 0-7 in China, was brought back to the front of our attention Sunday after video surfaced of him dropping an opponent who, full disclosure, deserved it. It doesn’t take much for our T-Mac antennae to pick up news on one of our favorite players, but this play, called “dirty” by opponent Stephon Marbury, made it back to this side of the Pacific even faster than usual. The opponent very unwisely taunted T-Mac with a finger wag after hitting a three in his face. McGrady responded with a direct-hit elbow to the chest, sending the shooter flying like Marquez‘s KO on Pacquiao but in reverse. T-Mac was not tossed for the play. … Since this is in China, should this elbow be referred to hereafter as The People’s Republic Elbow? … Eric Bledsoe (14 points) and Jamal Crawford (16 points) played more minutes off the bench than L.A. Clippers backcourt starters Chris Paul (16 points) and Willie Green on Sunday in a 102-83 win over Toronto, part of a Bench Mob Part II effort. Bledsoe had ten of his points in the fourth, when Vinny Del Negro kept looking down his bench full of starters and saw no reason to pull his reserves from the game action. Blake Griffin had 19 quiet points, with the exception of his two that came over the back of Linas Kleiza for a huge putback slam on a break. DeMar DeRozan had 24 to lead the Raptors back in his hometown. … Did you have any clue one of the most one-sided NBA matchups is Milwaukee absolutely owning the Nets? The Bucks got their 12th straight over the Nets in a 97-88 win in Barclays. The Nets need Brook Lopez back ASAP because it’s gotten rocky. Whereas Brandon Jennings (26 points) and Monta Ellis were combining for 50 points, Joe Johnson couldn’t make a field goal until the fourth quarter and Deron Williams (18 points) was 1-of-7 from three. … As expected, the league office popped San Antonio’s Stephen Jackson 25 grand for his Twitter message (since deleted and apologized for in a hail of Instagram posts) telling Serge Ibaka that “he aint bout dis life.” No matter how many Instagram apologies of text on a template he sends out, it doesn’t change that Jack might be the NBA’s most honest player. He’s the anti-cliche and we doubt this fine does much to change that. … Also getting docked is Cavaliers coach Byron Scott, whose critique of the refs Friday night was hilarious. He started by saying he didn’t want to irk the league office about a 35-9 free throw disadvantage, then immediately said the refs were bad. Just as fast, a fine check was in the mail to him … We’re out like Stephen Jackson‘s next paycheck.

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