Carmelo Anthony hits clutch jumper to lift Knicks over Pacers (Video)

With the game on the line Monday night, the New York Knicks turned to Carmelo Anthony for a crucial late-game bucket and he delivered.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the New York Knicks, from Derrick Rose going AWOL to Carmelo Anthony trade rumors to head coach Jeff Hornacek losing to his former team at Madison Square Garden in their most recent game.

On the road against the Indiana Pacers Monday night, the Knicks got some small dose of relief from the last few weeks of turmoil thanks to their superstar.

With the score knotted at 103-103, the Knicks had the ball and found Melo on the low block with a mismatch against Jeff Teague for an iso look. Anthony has often been criticized for being a black hole on offense, but shots like this serve as a nice reminder why he takes so many of those shots.

The smooth turnaround jumper gave the Knicks a 105-103 lead, and they were able to hang on for the 109-103 victory thanks to a Myles Turner turnover on the next inbounds play.

The win moved New York to 20-26 on the season, which is good for 11th place in the Eastern Conference. Despite having such an underwhelming record, the Knicks are only 2.5 games out of the eighth seed.

Melo finished the game with a team-high 26 points on an efficient 9-of-17 shooting from the field and 7-of-8 from the free throw line.

Derrick Rose chipped in 20 points and six assists in the victory, while Paul George led the Pacers with 31 points and seven boards. Indiana fell to an even .500 at 22-22, good for the East’s seventh seed.

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Coming into the game, Anthony was averaging 22.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game on 43.3 percent shooting from the field and 37.1 percent from three-point range. However, he’s still also in danger of missing his first All-Star Game since 2009 after not being voted into the starting five.