NBA

Carmelo jokes with Jared: Dunk it next time

Carmelo Anthony had a simple message for teammate Jared Jeffries: “Dunk the ball next time.”

During practice yesterday, Carmelo Anthony said he sent passes to Jeffries and told him to do something.

Anthony said he was joking around with Jeffries at practice yesterday — “It’s all fun and games, man,” Anthony said — referring to the final Knicks’ possession of Game 2, when Anthony, who was double-teamed by the Celtics’ defense, opted to pass the ball to Jeffries in the closing seconds.

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Jeffries, with Kevin Garnett guarding him, instead tried to pass to Bill Walker. Garnett got a hand on the ball, then covered it up and called a timeout with 4 seconds left, sealing Boston’s win.

Anthony insisted that despite criticism about his choice to pass, he would make the same decision again.

“You guys criticized me for [not shooting]. I took the shot the other day [at the end of Game 1]. You criticized me for that,” he said, laughing. “But it’s all good to me, man. If I’m in that same situation, I will definitely pass it to Jared again.

“I told him [yesterday], ‘Get a couple layups under the basket.’ ”

Anthony refused to criticize Jeffries’ decision to pass the ball.

“I can’t make that decision for him,” Anthony said. “Once I gave him the ball, it was up to him to either take the shot or pass it. He chose to pass it.”

As did Anthony. He explained yesterday that during the timeout, he implored his teammates to “get open” because he knew he was getting double-teamed.

“I wanted to take that shot,” Anthony said. “But the right thing to do was somebody’s open, you’ve got to give it to him.”

After the loss, Anthony said Game 2 “was fun,” and he didn’t back off that yesterday even when told Kobe Bryant might not have used those words.

“I’m not Kobe, though,” he said. “I still have fun in those games. We’re on the road, nobody would ever say the Knicks would have a chance to win both games in Boston. I’ll take that. We could have won both of those games. We could have been up 2-0 right now and you probably wouldn’t be asking me that question.”