DENVER -- Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony entered the first round series versus the Denver Nuggets, the team he started his career with some 18 years ago, saying he didn’t have anything to prove. But he went ahead and proved something anyway.
The 6-8 forward in his 18th season out of Syracuse put up 12 points in under five minutes in the first quarter to help the six-seed Trail Blazers best the three-seed Nuggets 123-109 in Game 1 at Ball Arena Saturday night in Denver. The win not only flipped home court advantage into the Trail Blazers’ favor, it also gave Anthony his first victory versus the Nuggets, the team that selected him with the third overall pick of the 2003 Draft, in Denver since the three-team trade that sent the future Hall of Famer to the New York Knicks back in 2011.