Carmelo Anthony is out for vengeance.
The Cavaliers, the NBA’s worst team by far, come into Madison Square Garden tonight having gone 2-0 against the Knicks this season, the second win throwing a wet rag last Friday on the soaring vibe surrounding the new-look team.
“[Tonight] is a payback game, man,” Anthony said yesterday. “[Last Friday’s] game, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. And the team’s mouth. And we remember that. We hold grudges.”
Anthony didn’t declare this with vitriolic anger. In fact, he said it with less authority or hostility than teammate Amar’e Stoudemire did a few weeks ago when the Knicks were set to have a rematch with the Hawks, against whom they had scuffled in their previous meeting.
The Knicks and Cavs, unlike the Knicks and Hawks, don’t have any bad blood.
Still, Anthony and the Knicks are out for some degree of revenge after the Cavs defeated them, 115-109.
In Game 2 with Anthony and Chauncey Billups (who is expected to miss his second straight game tonight with a bruised quad), Cleveland got 28 points and 13 boards from Antawn Jamison (now out with a broken finger), 24 points and 15 boards from J.J. Hickson, and 22 points and eight boards from point guard Ramon Sessions.
The Cavs will be without Jamison, but they do have Baron Davis, acquired before the trade deadline from the Clippers. Davis has not played for the Cavs since the deal, but according to the Akron Beacon Journal, he’s expected to tonight.
The Cavs sit at 11-49. They’re on pace to go 15-67. They lost 36 of 37 — with the only win coming against the Knicks in Cleveland on Dec. 18 — including an NBA-record 26 straight losses.
“I don’t think it’s going to be personal,” Mike D’Antoni said. “We’re trying to get to the playoffs. Cleveland’s Cleveland. Whoever we’ve got Sunday, we’ve got to worry about whoever we’ve got Sunday. I just think they would want to keep going what they’ve got and know that it’s an important game for us.”
Anthony said he’s getting more comfortable with the offense, feeling it plays to his strength more than the Nuggets’ system did.
“It’s better for me in this offense, to keep the ball moving and running, coming off screens,” said Anthony, who has averaged 26.0 points in his five games with the Knicks after scoring 25.2 points per game in Denver this season.
“I didn’t have that in Denver. It was just go down there, get a bucket in the post and bully your way through. I did seven years of bullying, man, and my body, I can’t take it anymore. [This offense is] easier for me to come off of screens and use the big men and pick-and-rolls and stuff like that. It takes a lot off my body.”