Gallinari bests 'Melo', Knicks in double overtime

NEW YORK (AP):

Carmelo Anthony sat silently at his locker, wondering if it was time to rest his aching body, or even shoot less.

Wishing he was still in Denver never crossed his mind.

"Expectations are still high. Things will still be great," he said. "I'm not down, I'm not regretting anything. I'm not regretting the trade."

And certainly neither are the Nuggets.

Danilo Gallinari outplayed Anthony in the first meeting since they were swapped in a blockbuster trade, scoring a career-high 37 points as the Nuggets outlasted the New York Knicks 119-114 in double-overtime on Saturday night.

"It's special not just for me but I think for everybody," said Gallinari, who was loudly cheered. "Whenever you come to the Garden to play, you always find extra motivation and it's always special."

Al Harrington, another former Knicks forward, scored 22 of his 24 points after half-time for the Nuggets, allowing them to withstand Anthony's attempt to rally the Knicks after his poor shooting had them behind until the final minutes of regulation.

Anthony finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds, missing 20 of 30 shots in the Knicks' sixth straight loss. He missed 14 of his first 17 shots and heard boos, then made his final four of regulation to nearly help New York pull it out.

Anthony, who spent the first 7¹/² years of his career with the Nuggets before they granted him a trade, was on his way to a nightmare first game against them. He threw away a pass that Gallinari turned into the tie-breaking layup with 5:19 left in regulation, committed an offensive foul on his next possession that Nene followed with a dunk for a four-point lead and Denver were up six with under 2¹/² minutes remaining.

But Anthony finally got going with some drives to the basket and after Gallinari managed only one free throw with 7.3 seconds left, Anthony made a jumper with three defenders around him to tie it at 98 with 1.7 seconds to go.

His three-pointer with 2:33 left in the first OT snapped a 100-all tie and after Andre Miller tied it with a desperation three to beat the shot clock, Anthony knocked in a jumper to put New York back ahead with 1:02 remaining. It stayed that way until Nene was fouled grabbing the rebound off Anthony's missed jumper with 9.2 seconds left, making both free throws to tie it again.

The Knicks led for the final time at 111-110 on Anthony's jumper with 1:38 to play, but Gallinari made two free throws and Harrington hit a three-pointer from the corner to make it 115-111 with 46 seconds to go.

Other results: Cleveland 94 Atlanta 121, Philadelphia 92 Miami 113, Portland 91 Detroit 94, Dallas 83 New Orleans 81, Sacramento 95 Memphis 128, Charlotte 89 Chicago 95, San Antonio 102 Houston 105, Oklahoma City 84 New Jersey 74, Minnesota 98 Utah 108.