Steve Serby
BOSTON — Carmelo Anthony hadn't carried the Knicks on his shoulders, not at all. For most of the night, in fact, the Knicks had carried him, unlikely heroes named Pablo Prigioni and Iman Shumpert.
But then the Celtics began coming at the Knicks in the fourth quarter, the way the Russell Celtics used to come at everybody all the time. A monumental choke was unfolding that threatened to force a Game 7, quite possibly rip the heart out of Melo and the Knicks once and for all and make you wonder whether it might be another 13 years before they might win a damn playoff series.
EPA
FINISHING SCHOOL: Carmelo Anthony reacts in the second half of last night's 88-80 Knicks victory in Game 6, eliminating the Celtics.
In the blink of an eye, 75-49 had become 75-69, and the TD Garden stood and sounded as if all of New England had showed up. Their warrior Celtics, emptying the tank of their last vestiges of pride, began exposing the Knicks as mentally weak pretenders who do not know how to keep their feet on the throat of a mortally wounded team that made you feel as if you were watching a Night of the Basketball Living Dead movie.
KNICKS PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
PHOTOS: BEST PLAYOFF MOMENTS
A steal by Shumpert ended an incomprehensible 20-0 Celtics run, but then Avery Bradley stole the ball from Melo, and it was an 81-75 game when Paul Pierce, at the end of a nightmare night, missed a 3.
It was time for Melo to save the Knicks. To save himself.
And so he did.
"It's a big relief, for myself, for us as a team, for the organization, to make that next step, which is getting out of the first round," Anthony (21 points) said after Knicks 88, Celtics 80. "It was something that I've been looking forward to since I came here to New York, something that the organization's been looking forward to, something that the city of New York's been looking forward to, and we were able to accomplish that."
With 6:39 left, Bradley had banged Anthony's same sore left shoulder from Game 5, and again it left him doubled over and wincing and holding it as if he feared it might fall off. It was 75-68, and J.R. Smith, still in the midst of a debilitating funk, was no help at all.
Only once in his NBA career has Melo made it past the first round, a cruel reminder he cannot avoid, a forever stain on his legacy, and now he was facing a personal Armageddon. No one in New York would care that he had won a scoring title if he couldn't get the Knicks past the Celtics to the Pacers, at the very least.
But now the ball was in his hands, because it is supposed to be in the hands of your best player in your most desperate hour. Except Melo had missed his previous two shots, and — gasp — was 0-for-5 from downtown on this night, 0-for-his-last-19 from downtown at that point.
0-for-20 might mean a Game 7.
"It's always the next one that's going in," Anthony said. He laughed and said: "19, damn! You always believe that the next one is going in. You should never play with any doubt out there on the basketball court."
0-for-20 might mean him becoming the face of failure for all of New York to see.
"I can't go into a basketball game thinking about that," he said. "My mind was clear, I had one thing on my mind, which is do whatever it takes to win this basketball game. ... I can't step into the court thinking about failure. "
So he didn't.
With 1:43 left, it was 84-75, and over.
"He made the biggest 3 of the night," coach Mike Woodson said.
Anthony had been 6-for-21 from the floor before the 3, which meant he had been 24-for-80 over the past three games.
"It was kind of a different game for myself, the mindset was to come out and kinda be — I don't really like to use the word decoy — but I told my teammates I'm pretty sure that the Celtics really thought that I was going to come out guns blazing," he said.
Melo will gladly shoulder the load next time.
"A little sore," he said. "The more it gets beat up, the sorer it gets. But not something I come into the game thinking about. Just certain things that I do out there on the court, I can feel it. I'll be fine. I'll be ready here come Sunday."
steve.serby@nypost.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment