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http://www.denverpost.com/ci_11190821
"That was the best I've ever seen."
Legendary coach Doug Moe, currently a Nuggets consultant, watched the game from his San Antonio home. As the stats popped up on the screen early in the fourth quarter — Anthony's 33 points tied the 33 scored by George Gervin — and one-upped the 32 scored by David Thompson, Moe turned to his wife, Jane, and proclaimed: "Shoot, that was the same day!"
Indeed, it was April 9, 1978 — the last day of the regular season — and the Spurs' Gervin and the Nuggets' Thompson were vying for the NBA scoring title. That afternoon, Thompson scored 73 points, including 32 in one quarter, setting an NBA record, which stood for a matter of hours. That night, Gervin needed 58 points to snatch the title from Thompson.
Moe was the coach of the Spurs (George Karl was an assistant, but he was scouting on the road that night), and the plan was to go to Gervin as much as possible, despite the box-and-one defense and even the triangle-and-two, which Moe recalled Wednesday night. Sure enough, Gervin scored 63 points — including 33 in a quarter — and won the scoring title.
Moe, quite possibly, was one of the few people to see both Gervin's performance and Anthony's 30 years later.
"Tonight's performance brought back memories because Gervin was on fire, they couldn't stop him, and Melo was totally on fire," Moe said by phone. "And that one for us, we had already clinched the division. Today, we were in a little trouble at halftime."
Indeed, Denver trailed Minnesota at the half, 56-44. Anthony is playing with a right elbow contusion, and in the first half, he shot like it. He missed all five jump-shot attempts.
There was a heated discussion at halftime.
"I thought everybody had a dullness to them," Denver coach Karl said. "I complained about the starters at halftime. I complained about the bench at halftime."
But the Nuggets began the third quarter on fire, igniting a 16-4 run. When Anthony hit a 3-pointer at the 6:30 mark — his first made jumper of the night — it tied the game at 60, basically giving Denver a do-over.
From that point, Anthony was unflappably unstoppable, calmly splashing 3s and slithering to the basket. He scored 33 of Denver's 40 points in the quarter, including 24 points in a row, and the Nuggets led 84-78 heading into the fourth.
Anthony thrived in the third because his baskets were, as Karl said, "catch-and-shoot or flow-of-the-offense," as opposed to the first half, when he often paused before shooting and couldn't get into a rhythm.
Anthony was hit on the sore elbow in the first half, and said that he was in pain, even in the third quarter. But he was in the zone, a zone no one has been in for three decades, when two guys were on the same day.
"This was an explosion of confidence," Karl said, "in a game that we needed him."
Denver played without power forward Kenyon Martin, who missed his second straight game with a left wrist sprain. Early on, he was clearly missed. By the half, Minnesota's two post starters had 24 combined points.
And so, the third-quarter jolt was opportune.
When Anthony took a rest to start the fourth quarter, he put ice on his elbow and wrapped it in an Ace bandage. Martin looked over and saw what was happening — Anthony was cooling off his hot shooting arm. And so, Martin playfully ran over to Anthony and tried to rip off the bandage, just in case. ..|.,
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