DENVER (AP) -So much for the thought that nobody on the Lakers can stop Carmelo Anthony.
‘Melo finished with 21 points Saturday night – seven below his playoff average – and only seven of those came in the last three quarters of Denver’s 103-97 loss to Los Angeles in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals.
Give a big dose of the credit to Trevor Ariza, the Lakers’ lanky forward, who draped himself all over Denver’s star for most of the last three quarters.
Give some more to the foul trouble Anthony found himself in from the second quarter on.
And give all of the Lakers the rest for refusing to believe what had been pounded into them over the first two games – that there was no solution for Anthony, who scored 34 and 39 points in Denver’s split at the Staples Center.
The Nuggets now trail 2-1.
t him off the rhythm of his game in second half, and we didn’t have an offensive leader.”
Anthony played all 12 minutes in the first quarter, scored 14 points, and looked like he might have 30 by halftime.
Quickly, though, the long-range jumpers that fell so easily in the first two games stopped going in. He finished 1-for-7 from 3-point range. The Nuggets had trouble getting him the ball down low and frustration – the kind this new, improved Nuggets team thought it had left behind – started setting in on offense.
After taking 10 free throws in the first half, Anthony got to the line only four more times in the second. He shot 53 percent in the first two games against the Lakers but went 4-for-13 in this one.
Fouls were also a killer. Anthony picked up his fourth foul with 5 minutes left in the third quarter, his fifth with 3 minutes left in the fourth and left the game after the Nuggets botched a late inbounds pass for the second time in three games. Kenyon Martin was trying to get the ball to Anthony, but Ariza stepped in front, made the steal, got fouled and hit two free throws to essentially ice the game.
“It was kind of funny, pretty much the same thing but just different players involved,” said Ariza, who also made the steal in Game 1.
In Game 1, though, the Lakers didn’t have an answer for Anthony. This time they did.
game tape to know exactly what it was that changed.
His early guess was that they were picking him up more quickly when Denver went into its offense. Good guess. Melo averaged 25 shots a game in the first two. He barely got half that this time.
“It was getting in front of the picks he was coming off, knowing where he wanted to get the ball,” Jackson said. “Some of those things were much better tonight.”
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