Los Angeles – It wasn’t Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony’s worst playoff game. But the first half of Game 2 against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday was one he’d like to forget.
Anthony, who averaged 26.5 points during the regular season, was held without a point in the first half. He was 0-for-4 and sat out all but six minutes because of foul trouble.
Anthony went to the bench with 7:08 left in the first quarter and Denver down 12-6 after he picked up his second foul. He didn’t return until the beginning of the second quarter, but he picked up his third foul at the 10:30 mark, in apparent frustration after missing a shot.
Anthony quickly got on the board to start the second half and scored 11 points in the third quarter. He finished with 16 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
Melo’s career playoff low was two points in Game 4 of a first-round loss in 2004 against Minnesota, when he suffered an ankle injury.
Anthony also struggled in Game 1 of the Clippers series, when he went 9-for-26 from the field, including 0-for-8 in the fourth quarter. In that game, he had trouble passing out of double teams. Before Monday’s game, Nuggets coach George Karl was asked about Anthony’s ability to handle double teams. “He’s probably in college. He hasn’t graduated yet,” Karl said.
Bigger role for Ruben
After playing Ruben Patterson fewer than 13 minutes in Game 1, Karl substituted the swingman into the starting lineup Monday in place of Greg Buckner. Karl said he hoped to inject energy and aggressiveness into Denver’s approach to defending Sam Cassell but that didn’t seem to work. At least not in containing Cassell, who had another big night as Los Angeles ran out to a huge lead.
Patterson, meanwhile, went 0-for-3 from the field with one rebound in 19 minutes.
Karl also said just before game time that he would not play Kenyon Martin more than in Game 1, when Martin logged almost 28 minutes despite a sore left knee. He didn’t have to worry about that, as Martin’s knee flared up again and he sat out the second half.
“He’s fortunate to play as many minutes as he’s been playing,” Karl said. “Half of those minutes are on heart, guts and an empty gas tank.”
Hodge looks to future
Julius Hodge made another small step in his recovery from four gunshot wounds to his lower body, joining his Nuggets teammates in California for Game 2. He missed Game 1 to receive treatment.
Wearing a boot on his left foot, Hodge gave no timetable for recovery from the April 8 incident, which occurred on an Interstate 76 ramp. Police are still searching for the shooter.
Asked to comment on the case, he said: “I’m still here. I’ll let God handle everything else.”
Hodge said he looks forward to playing on Denver’s summer league team in Las Vegas. He thanked his teammates, singling out DerMarr Johnson and Marcus Camby for their support.
Hodge said his rookie season, during which he saw little playing time with the Nuggets, has been “an experience that in the long run is going to make me that much better of a player.”
“Definitely, it has made me more hungry as a player and on the basketball court,” he said. “For everything that I’ve been through, it just made me that much stronger and tougher.”
Camby said of Hodge: “I try to talk to him every day. I know it’s kind of tough not being around the team. He’s feeling alienated. But I try to talk to him, make him feel relevant. I try to crack a lot of jokes and make sure he has a smile on his face.”
Russell in transition
After starting the season with the Nuggets, Bryon Russell has spent the end of it as a de facto coach, attending “every last meeting” and giving Karl advice when asked. Mostly, Russell listens. With all the film work and late-night sessions, Russell has a newfound respect for assistant coaches.
“It’s easy to play the game, I will tell you that much,” he said. “With coaches, you’re better overprepared than underprepared. We are flooding each other’s ears with a lot of information.”
Russell will meet with Karl after the season to discuss staying with the team as a coach.