Nuggets at Knicks
The soap opera surrounding the New York Knicks keeps getting more ridiculous, with cryptic tweets from team president Phil Jackson one day and legendary former players being escorted out of the stands and arrested the next. On the court, star forward Carmelo Anthony will try to fight off the trade rumors for another day when the Knicks host the Denver Nuggets on Friday.
First-year New York coach Jeff Hornacek was asked in his pregame press conference before Wednesday's game if he was surprised by the off-court drama surrounding the team and told reporters, "I kind of, not was warned, but it was expected that it was going to be something all the time." Hours later, former power forward Charles Oakley was arrested after an incident that began with a verbal altercation with owner James Dolan before the Knicks, on the court, squandered a fourth-quarter lead in a 119-115 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers - their third straight setback and 19th in the last 25 games. The Nuggets are not dealing with that kind of dysfunction and appeared to be making a run up the standings in the Western Conference with wins in seven of nine through Jan. 28, but losses in four of the last six slowed the momentum. Denver began a three-game road trip, which ends in Cleveland on Saturday, with a 117-106 setback at Atlanta on Wednesday despite 18 points and 15 rebounds from budding star Nikola Jokic.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, Altitude (Denver), MSG (New York)
ABOUT THE NUGGETS (23-29): Jokic sat out three straight games with a hip injury bridging January and February but picked up right where he left off with a triple-double in a win over Milwaukee last Friday before playing limited minutes in the next two games. Without a minute restriction or foul trouble plaguing him on Wednesday, the 21-year-old buried a pair of 3-pointers and outplayed Atlanta center Dwight Howard but could not make up for Denver allowing the Hawks to score 72 points in the first half and shoot 50.5 percent from the floor. Defense is a consistent issue for the Nuggets, who rank 28th in the NBA in scoring defense while allowing opponents an average of 111.4 points.
ABOUT THE KNICKS (22-32): Jackson sent out a tweet on Tuesday that appeared to be taking a shot at Anthony, something he has done with regularity this season, but Anthony is trying to brush off the distraction. "I think anybody would get tired," Anthony told reporters. "If you went to work every day and had these spats about you eventually you would get tired. Unless you’re as strong as I am and can deal with it and move on from it. I think anybody - any human being - at some point in time would start feeling that way about it." Anthony scored 28 points on Wednesday but was just off the mark on a 3-point attempt that would have tied the game in the final seconds as New York fell.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Knicks C Joakim Noah (hamstring) sat out Wednesday and reportedly could miss the final three games of the homestand.
2. Nuggets PF Kenneth Faried (sprained right ankle) left Wednesday's game and joins PG Emmanuel Mudiay (back) and SF Danilo Gallinari (groin) as questionable for Friday.
3. Anthony scored 29 points in the first meeting on Dec. 17 but Denver shot 55.6 percent and downed visiting New York 127-114.