Knicks guard J.R. Smith, who was a teammate of Carmelo Anthony’s in Denver, has seen this before — this torrid scoring streak Anthony is currently riding. But he has never seen it come in the clutch the way this one has in recent games with the Knicks’ playoff life hanging in the balance.
“This run right here has been like no other,’’ Smith said after watching Anthony pour in 42 points (one shy of his Knicks career high) on 14-of-27 shooting from the field in yesterday’s 93-85 loss to the Heat. “Being at the Garden and seeing it is totally different than being at the Pepsi Center [in Denver] and seeing it. When you’re almost out of the playoffs and you’re fighting for the No. 6, 7 or 8 [playoff] spot and you have a leader like that doing what he’s been doing … it’s tough to stop him.’’
Just ask the Heat, who couldn’t.
“The basket looked like an ocean to him,’’ Heat coach Eric Spoelstra said.
“Their one great player played great,’’ Miami’s Dwyane Wade said. “Melo’s a heck of a ballplayer. He can lead a team to win on any night.’’
In the 11 games Amar’e Stoudemire has missed with his back injury, Anthony has averaged 30.2 points per game.
Knowing the Knicks were short-handed, Anthony said he “had to be aggressive and keep attacking.’’
“I wanted to keep some pressure on them,’’ he said.
“Guys like Carmelo Anthony, ‘KD’ [Kevin Durant] and Kobe [Bryant], they’re flat-out scorers,’’ Miami’s LeBron James said. “They’re going to make shots, and hopefully down the stretch you try to continue to wear on them and hopefully they start to miss a few. I was trying to be aggressive on Carmelo. He was aggressive from the tip. A few of them didn’t go down at the end of the game.’’
Anthony could carry the Knicks only so far before the task simply became too immense without enough scoring help around him. Smith, with 16 points off the bench, was the only other Knick to score in double figures.
Anthony outscored the other four Knicks starters 42-19 — with Landry Fields (four points), Tyson Chandler (nine), Baron Davis (three) and Iman Shumpert (three) all struggling offensively.
“We tried to stay the course. He’s a tough cover,’’ Spoelstra said. “We put him to the line too often in the first half [10 times] and we didn’t want to overreact to his ability to get off those pull-up jump shots. He does that as well as anybody in the league. He got on a roll.’’