Carmelo Anthony’s Last 30-Point Game Ended With a Game-Winner

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If you read this headline and were left wondering why I’m writing about Carmelo Anthony, or why I’m writing about Carmelo Anthony and his last 30-point game, you missed the latest news involving Melo. For Melo defenders, the news wasn’t great. For Colin Cowherd, who has a healthy distaste for all things Melo, or any other Melo hater, the news gives credence to their go-to criticisms.

Speaking with SiriusXM NBA Radio, Chauncey Billups, a longtime teammate of Carmelo Anthony, said that Melo worried too much about his own scoring output. To be exact, he said “scoring 30 meant too much” to the 10-time NBA All-Star.

“Scoring 30 meant too much to Melo. It meant too much because he could have games where he had 20, 22, we win the game and he’s mad. He might have 36, and he’s in there — we lose the game, and he’s in there picking everybody up. Scoring 30 meant too much.”

Not a great look for Melo, and it’s part of the reason Billups believes the Syracuse legend isn’t on a roster right now. “He hasn’t mentally taken that step back,” Billups added.

Of course, seeing the news and listening to the soundbite made me wonder when the last time Melo actually scored 30 in a game.

Here we are. I knew he didn’t do it last year during his brief stint with Houston, and I was right, but he did score 28 just days before the Mike D’Antoni-Carmelo Anthony reunion tour came to an abrupt end. If he was that close in Houston, I figured he had to have dropped 30 in his lone season with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Wrong. He topped out at 29 during the 2017-18 season alongside Russell Westbrook and Paul George.

I had to go back to his final season with the New York Knicks. As it turns out, his last 30-point game was more than just a solid night. On February 25th, 2017, exactly seven months before he was traded to Oklahoma City, Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks to a 110-109 win over Philadelphia at Madison Square Garden, scoring a game-high 37 points in the process. His final two points, however, went through the net triumphantly as the final seconds ticked away; down 109-108, Melo took a pass from Derrick Rose and set up shop in isolation against Philadelphia’s best defender, Robert Covington. You can picture in your head what happened next, without even watching the highlight that sits below: face-up, shoulder fake, two dribbles to the left, and a step-back jumper. Even when the postseason wasn’t likely during Melo’s Knicks’ stint, a pop from the MSG crowd always followed a bucket from their star. When it was for game, the energy Melo brought to the Garden was unmatched.

Everyone on their feet. Everyone simultaneously celebrating a win. That play is Melo…He was a master in isolation…at getting, and sinking, a mid-range jumper at will. Few did it better. Fewer made it look so effortless. Unfortunately, few even want to try now, and fewer coaches relish such a skill. If needed, he could do tomorrow, and do it well, but the game has changed right in front of him — three is more than two and his defense doesn’t make up the difference over 30-35 minutes. Teams can use a lethal mid-range scorer that’s subpar defensively, just in short spurts. Sadly, 30-35 minutes is a prereq for Melo. He’s Allen Iverson on the Memphis Grizzlies.

“He’s still worthy,” Billups noted in the interview, but until he follows in the footsteps of Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady — superstars who accepted their fate as part-time contributors — another 30-point game isn’t even a possibility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWBDwQ1iWY0

Carmelo’s last 30-point game:

MP: 37
PTS: 37
FG: 15
FGA: 25
3FG: 2
FTM: 5
REB: 6
AST: 2

 

CATEGORY: NBA