As the first question came his way, Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic squirmed in his chair.
“He’s right there,” he said with an uncomfortable smile. “I don’t know if I can talk.”
Carmelo Anthony was standing by waiting for Nurkic to finish his postgame availability, and every question was about Anthony after some vintage crunch-time Melo moments sealed a critical 110-102 win over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.cheap nike nfl jerseys wholesale
Anthony made two big plays in the final three minutes, blocking a P.J. Tucker 3-pointer with the score tied and drilling a straightaway, catch-and-shoot dagger 3 with 54 seconds left to put Portland up by five.
“Honestly, I don’t think you lose that. If you have it, you have it,” Anthony said of his clutch performance. “It’s something that you have to want to, you have to be willing to put yourself in those situations and enjoy those moments, take those shots and believe that you can make those shots.”
The Blazers are off to the kind of bubble start they believed they could have, and it’s due in large part to their getting Nurkic and big man Zach Collins back, which has thereby shifted Anthony to his old position of small forward. Although the Rockets tried to target Anthony in switches on the defensive end, he held his own and was able to keep up.
The restart has seen an apparent resurgence in Anthony, though that’s something with which both he and his teammates take issue.nike nfl jerseys cheap china
“When we got him, everybody had something to say about him: what he’s going to do defensively, he’s getting older, he’s done, where’s he going to fit in,” Damian Lillard said. “Everybody just had something to say: how he is in the locker room and all these things, why it didn’t work out with these other teams. But he came to us, and he was just, like, laid back, good teammate, good for our younger players. On the floor, he’s talking whether he’s having a good or bad game. Just all about the team.”
Anthony has been a polarizing player in recent years, with his one-year stint in Oklahoma City ending with him being traded to Atlanta and promptly waived. Then he was signed by the Rockets, which lasted only 10 games. At age 34, Anthony was out of the league and looking for a team.
Decimated by injuries to begin the season, the Blazers added Anthony.
“Clarity,” Anthony said when asked what he gained from his time away from the NBA. “Clarity — that’s it.”
With the Blazers, Anthony has been lauded for his willingness to accept whatever role he is cast in, his professionalism and his coachability.
“He understands what we need from him in certain situations, depending on how the game is going,” Lillard said. “It’s obvious to somebody like me that pays attention to everything. I find it real funny and disrespectful how people speak on him. He’s a Hall of Famer.”
Said Rockets forward Jeff Green: “That’s been Melo his whole career. A lot of people wrote him off during that short stint when he wasn’t in the league, but he’s proving everybody wrong now, and it’s great to see him out there. He’s been a guy that I have looked up to coming up, being close to the area, so it’s amazing to see what he’s still doing.”