NBA

Melo on cusp of rare playoff plateau with Knicks

BOSTON — The second round is almost here for Carmelo Anthony.

Anthony’s playoff history has featured the high-scoring superstar forward making the postseason in each of his 10 NBA seasons. But in his first nine playoff appearances before this spring, his team only advanced out of the first round once — that coming in 2008-09 with the Nuggets, when Denver got all the way to the Western Conference Finals.

Anthony lost in the first round with the Knicks each of his first two years in New York, losing eight of nine games. But after last night’s 90-76 Game 3 rout of the Celtics, he’s on the verge of moving on for just the second time in his career — now just a win away from the conference semifinals.

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“It feels good,” Anthony said last night after the Knicks grabbed a 3-0 series lead. “To be sitting in this situation, to be sitting in the driver’s seat right now.”

Anthony delivered a game-high 26 points at TD Garden last night, bouncing back after a 2-for-8 start to drain 10 of his next 17 shots and finish 12-for-25 from the field. He’s averaging 32 points in this series, continuing what has been a phenomenal season, one of the best by any Knicks player in franchise history.

“We want to close the deal,” Anthony said. “We want to seal the deal [tomorrow].”

Anthony never has been part of a victorious playoff sweep before. In the 2009 playoffs when his Nuggets advanced, they knocked off the Hornets in five games in the first round before eliminating the Mavericks in five in the Western semis. In his first Knicks postseason two years ago, Anthony was swept by the Celtics, affording him the chance for revenge in Game 4 tomorrow.

“To be honest with you, to accomplish that would be spectacular. It would be a dream come true,” he said. “I’ve never swept anybody. But we know Game 4 is win or go home for those guys.”