Carmelo has been playing absolutely unhinged basketball over the last five games.
Image by Adrees Latif / Reuters
After the New York Knicks won 18 of their first 23 games, it was hard to imagine that they could be that good again all season, and for a while it looked like they wouldn't be. The team struggled through the first two months of 2013, playing just over .500 ball and giving off the same vibes of the 2011-12 Knicks — meaning, they seemed liable to get crushed by one of the East's more serious contenders as soon as the playoffs rolled around.
This is no longer the case. New York's riding a 13-game winning streak that includes victories over the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Memphis Grizzlies, two of the league's best teams. And even more exciting than the streak itself is the recent play of Carmelo Anthony, which has been somewhere beyond the orbit of outstanding.
Over his last five games, Melo's averaging a preposterous 40 points on 61% shooting from the field, including 59% from three. (This is a guy who has shot 33% from long range over his career.) And to top it all off, he's adding 8 rebounds a game and only turning the ball over once a contest.
So, what does this kind of perfection look like? Courtesy of @NBA.com/Stats, I can show you.
