Carmelo shows why Knicks made trade

BOSTON

The playoffs generally are no time for gallantry in defeat, because all that really matters is the bottom line.

Just this once, though, there was no avoiding it.

The Knicks dropped a game they could have won Tuesday night, botching another last-minute sequence to fall behind 2-0 in their first-round playoff series against the Celtics. That is the grim, unavoidable reality.

But what many fans -- of the Knicks and of basketball -- will remember was a performance by Carmelo Anthony that confirmed for remaining skeptics why the Knicks gave up so much to acquire him.

And it boded well for a future in which the team envisions a championship or two with Anthony as its most dangerous postseason scorer.

Anthony was awful in his Knicks playoff debut Sunday but insisted afterward, again Monday and once more at Tuesday's shootaround that he would be unaffected next time out.

Then Chauncey Billups sat out with a bum knee and Amar'e Stoudemire skipped the entire second half with a bad back, leaving Anthony mostly to fend for himself with a motley collection of bit players.

Mike D'Antoni said there was no need to explain the situation to him. "I think it was pretty obvious at that point we were going to him every time,'' he said.

Melo got the message. "My thing was to just go out there and not just carry the team by scoring the basketball but by doing everything,'' he said.

Sure enough, he had 42 points, 17 rebounds, six assists and two blocked shots with only one turnover against one of the NBA's best, most experienced defenses. He played 44 minutes. He was 4-for-8 on three-pointers.

"He was destroying us,'' the Celtics' Glen Davis said.

"Some of the shots he made were just incredible,'' Kevin Garnett added.

Still, it was not enough. As he did Sunday, Anthony had the ball with the Knicks trailing in the final 10 seconds. But with Paul Pierce next to him and Davis closing quickly, he tried to add one more improbable assist when he fed offensively challenged Jared Jeffries in the paint.

The combination worked earlier, when Anthony drew a double team and found Jeffries for a basket that put the Knicks ahead 93-92. This time, Jeffries tried to pass to a closing Bill Walker and lost the ball to Garnett.

Anthony had been criticized in some quarters for hoisting a long three-pointer with four seconds left in Game 1. Did he do the right thing by not shooting this time? It would be harsh to argue that he didn't. D'Antoni and Anthony insisted he did.

"As soon as I got it, I saw the double team coming,'' Anthony said. "I thought Jared would lay it up. He thought he had a pass underneath. That's neither here nor there. I made the right play. I can live with that.''

The by-then exhausted Anthony had one last frustrating moment when he took too long to chase down and foul Delonte West in the last 4.1 seconds, denying the Knicks a realistic chance for a tying three. "I couldn't get out there; I don't want to fall flat,'' Anthony said.

The consolation is this playoff season always was about building for a brighter future, and that given the players they put on the floor alongside Anthony, it was a minor miracle the Knicks made it as interesting as they did.

"It was fun for the most part,'' Melo said. "We were out there fighting, man. My teammates stuck with me. I had confidence in them. It was just a battle.''

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