Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks improved to 19-6 after defeating New York rivals the Brooklyn Nets 100-86 at Madison Square Garden.

‘Melo’ was extremely efficient, playing in his first game back since missing the last two games because of a sprained ankle. He scored 17 points in the first half, helping the Knicks take a 52-48 halftime lead.

Point guard Deron Williams helped spark a Nets’ comeback as he scored nine of Brooklyn’s first 10 points, to start the second half, giving the Nets a 61-57 lead.

New York was able to regain their composure and played solid lockdown defense to regain momentum. They then finished the third quarter with an eight-point lead, thanks to an 18-6 run late in the quarter.

Anthony finished the game scoring 31 points on 12 of 22 shooting from the field, and 4 of 8 from downtown. He also contributed with three rebounds, one assist, two steals and a block. In his three games against the Nets, Anthony is averaging 37 points per game.

Prolific sixth man and guard, J.R. Smith, scored 19 points, dished out three assists and secured five rebounds. Big man Tyson Chandler also contributed as he recorded his tenth double-double of the year, scoring 16 points and grabbing 12 boards.

The Nets were led by shooting guard Joe Johnson, who scored a team high 17 points.  Deron Williams and center Brook Lopez both finished the game with double-doubles, as Williams scored 16 points and dished out 10 assists, whilst Lopez also scored 16 points with 10 rebounds.

Brooklyn continues to be inconsistent as of late, and are currently on a three game losing streak, which contributes to a record of 2-8 in their last 10 games. The Nets will be hoping for a chance in fortunes when they welcome the Philadelphia 76ers to the Barclays Center December 23, for the first time this season.

Although being blown out at home against Houston earlier in the week, the Knicks have managed to win five of their last six games, and remain atop the Eastern Conference with a game and a half lead over the Miami Heat. The Knicks will entertain the Chicago Bulls at Madison Square Garden on December 21.

Image Courtesy : New York Knicks

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Change the logo, name, colors and location of what was a historically underachieving franchise, and you always get the same thing in year one – a fantasy that all the pain of the past few years will be erased, and that invisible switch will be flipped the second that ground is broken for the new venue.

And then, most of the time, reality comes crashing down harder than Tim Duncan’s dunk over Serge Ibaka during the Spurs home opener on Thursday night. That’s usually why it’s called a fantasy.

But in the case of the new-look Brooklyn Nets, who have finally ended what was, for the most part, a miserable 35 year NBA residency period in New Jersey, people who have had high expectations for them going back to the moment they locked up one of the league’s elite point guards in Deron Williams this summer will not be asked if they also believed in Bigfoot at season’s end.

Once the Nets were able to retain Williams, Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries and Brook Lopez, and also acquire Joe Johnson during the offseason, they established one of the more formidable starting lineups in the Eastern Conference. Second year man Marshon Brooks, whose name was thrown into essentially every trade rumor the team was involved in the past few months, has the potential to make up for the lack of bench depth similar to the way James Harden did for the Oklahoma City Thunder the past few seasons.

Only one thing matters in the Empire State, though. Will they be better than a Knicks team who has suddenly resurged the last two seasons by making back-to-back postseason appearances following a six year playoff absence?

Could a team that went 22-44 last year – not to mention a mind-blowing 12-70 two years prior – possibly take control of a town that saw its team finish with the seventh best record in the conference last season?

Yes. They can and they will in 2012-2013.

This wouldn’t have been the case had the Knicks actually made upgrades this offseason. While the Nets went out and got a star in Johnson and retained their more than solid core filled with both youth and veteran leadership, the Knicks for some reason decided to make additions that would literally make them the oldest team in NBA history. Stamina will not be their best friend, to say the least.

Given the terrible reputation the Knicks front office has earned over the last decade or so, it’s hard to imagine that their signings of 38-year-old Rasheed Wallace off the street, 39-year-old Jason Kidd, 38-year-old Marcus Camby, 35-year-old Argentinian Pablo Prigioni and 40-year-old Kurt Thomas will end up looking like genius moves throughout the year.

When it isn’t about bringing in a bunch of guys who most New Yorkers didn’t even know were still playing – or trying to get back into the league in the case of Wallace – there are three other glaring issues taking place at Madison Square Garden.

You may or may not have heard of this one player named Jeremy Lin last spring. He sort of took the league, and the world, for that matter, by storm. Linsanity had its run and ended well before the 2011-2012 season did, but losing Lin in restricted free agency to his previous team, the Houston Rockets still has Knicks fans wondering why their ownership group hates them.

Then there’s Amar’e Stoudemire, who is expected to miss at least six weeks to begin the season with yet another injury. Seems as though he’s spent almost half of his Knicks career on the bench with some sort of ailment – even self-inflicted ones like the infamous punching of the fire extinguisher door against Miami during last year’s playoffs. Stoudemire’s had more than his fair share of ups and downs on the court as well during his time in a Knicks uniform, but the team is certainly much better off with him than without him.

Finally, there is Carmelo Anthony. Despite being a flat-out superstar who can get his basically whenever he chooses to do so, he’s been a major source of stress since joining the Knicks a season and a half ago. Anthony tends to murder ball movement the moment he touches it, and even though he claimed on media day that he’s willing to sacrifice his scoring for the sake and benefit of the team, we have no other choice than to believe it when we see it.

The Knicks will still be a solid team in all likelihood, but their combination of unanswered questions along with multiple head-scratching signings will not allow them to be the alpha dog in New York when there’s a Nets team in Brooklyn that’s as hungry and as talented as they’ve been in a long time.

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Since the Carmelo trade during last years 2010-2011 NBA season there has been speculation on both ends whether the trade was better for Denver or New York. Initially it seemed the Knicks were getting the sweet end of the deal but looking at the numbers now, some people may think a little differently. Looking at the regular season records for both teams since the Carmelo Anthony trade, the Knicks are 20-22, not even .500, while the Denver Nuggets are 28-12, sixteen games over .500.

When analyzing the trade that took place between the NY Knicks the Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves, neither team kept all players in the trade. Most of these players were traded after the lockout for other reasons. The Knicks lost Raymond Felton who was their starting point guard, although they received a veteran point guard in Chauncey Billups through the trade, after the lockout they got rid of Billups to free up cap space to sign big free agent Tyson Chandler from the Mavericks.

Everyone knows that D’Antoni preaches offense and is known for not being the best defensive coach. Then this stat would confuse some people in that, the Knicks are 22nd in offensive efficiency, which is a stat that measures points per every 100 possessions. While the Knicks are 22nd in this category the, “Meloless” Nuggets rank 5th.

So this leads to the question what is missing in the NY Knicks offense and the answer is: a solid point guard. With the loss of Billups and Felton, the Knicks fell back to signing two other veteran point guards, Mike Bibby from the Miami Heat, and Baron Davis from the Cleveland Cavaliers who is still trying to return from injuries.

With that in mind, much of the weight of the Knicks offense was not on any of their “Big 3″ so to speak, but on their rookie point guard Iman Shumpert out of Georgia Tech. Shumpert has come to the starting position and said in an interview about Carmelo and Stoudemire, “We’re making them take a lot of tough shots and we’re depending on them to score points,” Shumpert said. “We’ve got to make the offense a lot smoother.”

Shumpert makes a good point because coming into Wednesday game against the Suns, the Knicks were fifth worst in field goal percentage, and in the game against the Suns, the Knicks shot only 37.5 percent. Shumpert has a lot to learn being a rookie. When you look at teams like the San Antonio Spurs with Tony Parker, you see a team with a solid point guard with a smooth running offense.

That means breaking down the defense, running the offense, calling the right plays and finding the open man in order to put points on the board. Maybe Knicks is not giving Shumpert time to develop and go after veteran point guard Steve Nash who will be a free agent after this season. Looking back he ran a flawless offense with Stoudmire that could potentially work in D’Antoni’s offense.

The Knicks look to turn their four game losing streak around this Friday at the Garden when the 4-9 Milwaukee Bucks come into town. More importantly the Nuggets come to NY for the first time since the Melo trade and they come into the Garden with a better record the NY Knicks, and all eyes are on Melo to deliver an all-star performance.

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A host of NBA stars converged upon Oklahoma City Sunday night for the US Tracking Fleet Basketball Invitational hosted by hometown hero Kevin Durant. They did not disappoint, putting on quite a show for the energetic crowd.

With a final score of 176-171, players like Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and several others made sure the fans stayed entertained until the final whistle.a

Surprisingly, the high-scorer was Minnesota Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley, who finished with a Maravich-esque 56 points on 25-of-35 shooting from the field. Behind him, not-so-surprisingly, was Melo, who poured in a cool 43. King James finished with 40, and Westbrook added 34, but it would be the host himself, Kevin Durant, who put on the biggest show of all.

KD finished with a triple double, putting up 42 points, 27 rebounds and 10 assists, leaving the crowd enraptured throughout the scintillating performance. Other players invited to the affair included LaMarcus Aldridge, Johnny Flynn, Jamal Crawford, Jeff Green (once a Thunder player before his 2010-11 mid-season trade to Boston), Rudy Gay, Amar’e Stoudemire and John Wall.

Of course, Melo, Stoudemire, and Paul were all on the Blue Team, giving Big Apple fans a taste of what it could be like to have their own Big Three (Paul will be a free agent after the 2012-13 season). The exhibition match ran like a Golden State Warriors vs. New York Knicks game—strictly offense with a small smattering of defense sprinkled in.

Players joked and dilly-dallied around for the first three quarters, but buckled down in the closing minutes when victory and subsequent bragging rights were on the line. After being sent into overtime, it would be James and Durant that would pull the White team away for the win.

With the players exhibiting so much energy in what was a glorified All-Star game, it’s clear that they’re ready to get back to business and play NBA basketball. But if the lockout drags on, we’ll be sure to see more invitationals in the near future.

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