Carmelo Anthony comes face to face with Nets, Nuggets lose 115-99
The New Jersey Nets carried out a 115-99 lead over the Denver Nuggets at the Prudential Centre, Newark, NJ on 31 January.
The Nuggets went 50.8 per cent from the field in the loss and received a whopping 37 points from the highlight of Anthony’s trade-saga. The forward was just one point shy of a double-double as he rebounded nine times in the loss. The player faced the Nets
confidently; the nets had been pursuing him for a while but backed off before he had a chance to turn down their offer. The Nets offered him a sizable sum of $65 million, in an attempt to extend his contract with them. The Nuggets forward, however, took too
long to consider the offer leaving Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov with no choice other but to cut the deal.
The sought-after player was recieved with alot of jeering from the Newark audience but, putting up an indifferent front, he let his in court talent convert the boos into cheers.
The Nuggets gave away as many as 16 turnovers in the loss. Nets outrebounded the losing team to 38-27 and limited them to a 12-3 in offensive rebounds.
The New Jersey Nets played with a new surge after meeting the All-Star forward and boosted up against the player. "This was something I never experienced before with the trade situation, so not just me, everyone was fired up." said Anthony Morrow, the Nets
guard after the game. Morrow was also one of the players who might have been traded off had the deal not been cancelled.
Anthony is still waiting to be traded, undecided on where he wants to be, with the NBA trade deadline coming to a close on 24 February.
Devin Harris trounced 18 assists and scored nine points for the winning team.
New Jersey’s coach Avery Johnson beamed with joy, later complimenting his team for having an offensive edge over Denver Nuggets. The 45-year-old coach said, "Fortunately, we had three thirty point quarters. And that's pretty good for us."
Harris and Kris Humphries trounced an alley-oop before a fateful turnover given away by the Denver Nuggets. Another alley-oop assisted by Harris and clinched by Brook Lopez took New Jersey firing up the game for Nuggets, who faltered badly after that.
The Nets bench outscored the Nuggets bench by 33 points, 50-17. The Nuggets went 78.8 per cent from the free throw line, whereas the Nets maintained a soild 84.6 per cent.
The Nets had been strengthening up the game for themselves since the very start. They built a 10-point lead by the end of the first quarter. Having solid performances from Travis Outlaw and Derrick Favors to keep them up in the opening of the encounter.
Anthony reconciled against the opposition in the second quarter, pulling out a quality game for his team but failed to take away the lead from the opposition. The Nuggets ended up with a 50-63 deficit by the end of first half.
Chauncey Billups dominated the later half of the third quarter narrowing the gap between the rivals, taking the score to 78-85.
In the last quarter, the Nets pulled out as many shots as they could, sadly missing most of them. In the end, however, they managed to seal a 115-99 victory over the “Melo” led Nuggets.
For the Nuggets, Wednesday vs. Portland, Friday vs. Utah, Saturday @ Minnesota.
For the Nets, Wednesday vs. Philadelphia, Friday @ Detroit, Sunday vs. Indiana.
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