The Portland Trail Blazers have been making a late push to qualify for the NBA’s postseason, and Carmelo Anthony’s contributions have gone a long way toward them being in that position.
Being Damian Lillard’s incredible 51-point performance on Sunday, the Blazers managed to take a 124-121 victory from the Philadelphia 76ers. Anthony finished the contest with 20 points, which pushed him ahead of Paul Pierce on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
Although Anthony recently celebrated his 36th birthday, he’s proving to still have a lot of gas left in the tank. He bristled at the suggestion of becoming a reserve player during his one season in Oklahoma City and barley got an opportunity to learn how to get to the arena in Houston before the Rockets decided they’d be better off without him.
Since then, he got an opportunity with the Blazers and has made the most of it. After being signed by the team in November, Anthony has averaged 15.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per contest. In Orlando, he’s continued his strong play and has hit big shots for the Blazers, who have gone 4-2 in a critical stretch that sees them currently slotted in to square off against the eighth-seeded Grizzlies for the right to qualify for the playoffs and meet the Lakers in the first round.
Paul is obviously rooting for his close friend.
“Keep going my brother!!! @carmleoanthony,” Paul tweeted on Sunday after the NBA acknowledged that Anthony had moved into 15th on the league’s all-time scoring list.
For what it’s worth, Anthony will enter play on Aug. 10 trailing Tim Duncan by 98 points for 14th place. He has two more games this season, so it’s unlikely he’ll surpass Duncan now (playoff games and records are tracked separately).
In all likelihood, Anthony has shown enough to warrant an invitation to play in the NBA next season, but in the unlikely event that he decided to hang it up after the 2019-20 season, it’d be quite appropriate for him to end his career as 15th on the all-time scoring list.
Either way, we know Chris Paul will continue to root for him.
