Carmelo Anthony and Landry Fields insist they have no ill will toward one another.
Their actions early in the third quarter of last night’s 110-84 Knicks rout spoke otherwise.
Looking to create room while he dribbled, the former Knick landed an elbow to Anthony’s abdominal area. Anthony winced, then shoved Fields with two hands, drawing a flagrant 1 foul.
Anthony looked to shoot every time he had Fields on him, and often scored. While neither has ever been outspoken about the other, Fields’ play tailed off significantly once Anthony joined the Knicks. And he was famously good friends with Jeremy Lin.
“I’m still sore,” Anthony said after the Knicks’ 110-84 victory over the Raptors at the Garden last night, their fourth straight win after four losses in a row. “Luckily I’ve been doing a lot of abs [work]. It was just a reaction, one of those reactions.”
Fields said Anthony’s response surprised him “a little bit.”
“I wasn’t trying to be malicious, [it was] probably just a heat of the moment type thing, just a misunderstanding. … We were cool after the game, just wished each other well for the rest of the season.”
Interestingly, Knicks coach Mike Woodson referred to Fields, his former player, as “the guy.”
“There was contact there, the guy rode his shoulder and tried to go through his chest,” he said. “I’d get heated, too.”
The dust-up overshadowed another big performance from Anthony, who poured in 28 points on 19 shots, in the Knicks’ third straight win since he returned from a knee injury that cost him thee games.
Anthony is averaging 29 points in those games. Last night’s inspired effort was a big step for the star forward, in that it was the second game of his first back-to-back since returning from the injury.
“I’m starting to feel better and better each day,” he said. “That’s my goal, to do the little things I need to do to get back to where I need to be. I feel like I’m getting there. I’m still trying to get my explosiveness back. It may take a couple of more days. Everything else feels pretty good.”
After playing 43 minutes in the Knicks’ win Friday night in Toronto, Anthony logged just 30. He sat for much of the fourth quarter as the Knicks’ lead grew to 22.
“We talked about that, jumping on this team early from the start, to give everybody a chance to rest especially after back-to-backs,” he said. “This is one of the games we wanted to approach and get it done early.”
With Anthony back and Tyson Chandler seemingly to follow, the Knicks are starting to get healthy, which Anthony believes is the most important thing for the team entering the playoffs.
“Right now,” he said, “it seems like we’re starting to get healthy at the right time.”