Oklahoma City Thunder star Carmelo Anthony insists that he won’t be too hard on himself after critical misses down the stretch in Sunday’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Oklahoma City Thunder suffered their 31st loss of the season in a Sunday night matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers, 108-105. Anthony missed two wide-open 3s to tie, two free throws to ice the game beforehand and a turnover with sevens seconds remaining. Of the two missed 3s, one happened at the final buzzer. Anthony finished 3-for-13, concluding a week that has been an unfortunate stretch for the aging star player. He’s posted only six points in back-to back-games (Trail Blazers, Heat,) and averaged only 10 points in the entire time span. Nevertheless, Melo insists he won’t be too hard on himself over his miscues, according to ESPN.
"I had two previous to that shot, two open looks, shots that I would take at any moment, on any night. To get those three looks that I got, two back-to-back, then one to send the game to overtime, can’t ask for any better looks than that.“When you look back at it, I think when you look at it as a whole, you see the Boston game, then tonight missing three 3s down the stretch, as an individual that’s made those shots before, it’s tough to look at, and you always question yourself of what happened or didn’t happen, but you can’t beat yourself up about it.”"
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The Thunder are currently fourth in the west with a 44-31 record — exactly two games behind the Trail Blazers. Anthony taking the high road could be a two-headed beast: it could imply optimism for good things to come. Or, it could mean that Anthony isn’t caring about an issue that could hurt him and the Thunder in the postseason.