http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/13/sports/basketball/two-surprises-in-boston-carmelo-anthony-takes-court-and-knicks-get-a-win.html 2014-12-13 06:01:19 Two Surprises in Boston: Carmelo Anthony Takes Court, and Knicks Get a Win With Anthony in the lineup and leading the team in scoring, the Knicks earned their second road win of the season and ended a 10-game losing streak. === BOSTON — That constituted news because Anthony missed Wednesday’s game in San Antonio with a sore left knee. Fisher said at the morning shootaround that he doubted Anthony would play. Anthony said he was day to day. It also constituted news because the wallowing Knicks, who finally won, 101-95, to end a 10-game losing streak, have become an Anthony reality show. The protagonist’s plight on Friday jumped from a story about his willingness to facilitate a trade to his questionable playing status to his actual performance in the Knicks’ victory. The status of Anthony, considered the Knicks’ best player, is always newsworthy. He has long found himself front and center whether he plays or not, and on this night, he played reasonably well. He scored a team-high 22 points, on 9-of-20 shooting from the field, and helped his team to its first win since Nov. 22. It was the Knicks’ second road win of the season, the other coming against Cleveland on Oct. 30. In between had been 11 straight road defeats along with stories of locker room tension and the team’s developing a “loser’s mentality,” in the words of Phil Jackson, the Knicks’ president. Anthony spent Friday morning at the shootaround vehemently denying a published report saying he would waive his no-trade clause to expedite a trade. (Left unsaid is how attractive Anthony would be in the first year of a five-year, $124 million contract.) The next logical step: Would things be better if Anthony and the Knicks parted ways? “Come on, man. After all the work I did to get here and get back here?” Anthony said. “If I was to get up and want to leave now, that would just make me weak, make me have a weak mind.” He added, “I’ve never been a person to try to run from any adversity or anything like that, so I’m not going to pick today to do that.” The operative word there could be “today.” Anthony, whether by design or coincidence, has shown a knack for creating what Pat Riley liked to call “skirmishes.” Riley detested them, feeling they drew attention away from the matters at hand, namely the games. Anthony was a monumental distraction in his last year and a half in Denver, finally forcing the Nuggets’ hand and, with the help of Knicks’ ownership, orchestrating the blockbuster trade in February 2011. That was almost four years ago, when he was 26 and in his prime and widely regarded as one of the top small forwards in the In his first three seasons with the Knicks, the team made the playoffs but won exactly one series, a first-rounder over the Celtics in 2013. The team cratered last year — which more and more looks like the good old days compared to this season — and Anthony was once again the center of distraction as a free agent. He had chances to go elsewhere — but for less money. He let the Bulls, Lakers and Rockets wine and dine him. Chicago and Houston offered legitimate championship opportunities. Finally, Jackson reversed his original thinking and decided to give Anthony a maximum contract, the first year of which pays Anthony $22.5 million. According to Neither Jackson nor Anthony could have envisaged the train wreck that the Knicks have become. The 4-20 start was the worst in the 69-year history of the franchise — and there have been some really bad teams in those 69 years. Anthony, who will turn 31 on May 29, has missed three games already, two with back spasms and the third with the sore knee. But he has been the Knicks’ best player — a dubious honor — and has led the team in scoring 18 times, including Friday. He also finds himself back in the spotlight with this latest, off-the-court wrinkle. No sooner had the report about the no-trade clause appeared than Anthony’s agent, Leon Rose, shot it down. Anthony did the same. But the veracity of the story quickly became secondary to the potential machinations of the subject matter himself. Once again, Anthony was where he inevitably finds himself to be when things go wrong — at the center of a storm and looking for a way out. REBOUNDS J. R. Smith missed the game with a sore left heel. He also missed the Spurs game. ... The Knicks also lost Iman Shumpert with a dislocated left shoulder late in the second quarter. Shumpert got tangled up with Jeff Green and slumped to the floor, holding his left shoulder. ... Jason Smith gave the Knicks a huge lift off the bench with 12 points and 5 rebounds in 17 minutes. ... The Celtics were without Avery Bradley (illness), and they lost Marcus Smart after just four minutes because of a strained left Achilles’ tendon.