NBA

Anthony ejected, now Knicks face Nuggets

Talk about bad timing. Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony heads into tonight’s grudge match against his former team, the Nuggets, at one of the lowest moments of his NBA career.

Anthony was so frustrated during the Knicks’ fifth straight loss, a 100-86 shellacking by the awful Bucks last night, he got himself ejected with 1:33 remaining after a trash-talking incident with Milwaukee’s fleet point guard, Brandon Jennings.

Now, as the Knicks sit at 6-9, here come the high-flying 11-5 Nuggets into Madison Square Garden, doing quite well without Anthony.

“I take it as a must-win for us,’’ said Anthony, who scored 35 points against the Bucks, but shot 11-of-26 with four turnovers. “Me, personally, I have nothing to prove in the game. I spent seven-and-a-half years in Denver. I did a lot in Denver and I have nothing to prove out there. I just want to win the basketball game, and I’ll be satisfied.’’

Anthony will face Danilo Gallinari, one of the players the Knicks traded last February to the Nuggets. Gallinari always has played a physical game against Anthony and tempers could flare as they did last night in the final minutes when Jennings and Anthony were jawing. The incident began when Jennings sank one of his six 3-pointers, held up the “three’’ sign and said something to Anthony that apparently irked him.

“I don’t like to be punked out there, so I think that’s where the frustration set in, and it just started trickling down,’’ Anthony said. “I apologize to my teammates for that, but I don’t like being in situations like that. I don’t know how to handle punking situations too well.’’

Gallinari said he expects to be pumped tonight in his first game at the Garden since the trade.

“In my case it’s going to be particularly emotional, but the most important thing is winning the game,’’ Gallinari said last night. “Everybody’s talking about the game, but we just have to go out there and be focused and take it like it’s a normal game.”

Even Anthony admitted the Nuggets got a lot in the trade.

“You can’t compare our team to Denver,’’ he said. “Denver got five starters in that trade. So Denver is a helluva team. They’re one of the deepest teams in the NBA right now. We just want to go out there and win. It’s not [so] much about Denver. It’s more about us.’’