The Oklahoma City Thunder suffered yet another painful loss, this time in a 126-125 overtime contest against the Denver Nuggets, who they eliminated from the postseason late in 2017.
Yet, Carmelo Anthony witnessed it from the bench, as the perennial All-Star watched his team get some trouble from the feisty Nuggets. Asked if he was okay with the benching, Anthony's response was utterly surprising.
“Yeah, of course,” said Anthony according to ESPN' Royce Young. “Of course I wanted to be there, but that wasn't my decision to make, so I kind of leave that to coach on that one.”
Anthony had a chance to check himself in at the 2:22 mark, but upon seeing Jerami Grant succeed at his spot, he went back to join the rest of his teammates on the bench.
“I was sitting for the whole fourth, and there was like two and some change on the clock. [Grant] hit that three, so it was like just let him continue to go out there and just play it out and see what happens,” added Anthony. “But then we wind up going to overtime.”
Anthony had done fairly well during his 33 minutes on the court, scoring 23 points on 9-of-21 from the field, including 5-of-10 from deep with nine rebounds, a steal and a block.
Head coach Billy Donovan said he was “fine” with the decision. The 23 points were the most scored by Anthony since Feb. 13, now needed more than ever in a close playoff race after losing fourth place in the West following an earlier loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
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