Very few NBA players have the ability to slow down Stephen Curry, but give Carmelo Anthony credit for trying to get creative with it on Sunday. It didn’t work, of course.
With the Warriors leading the Knicks by 13 in the fourth quarter, Anthony got caught in a switch and stepped out to guard Curry. Carmelo figured his best chance of keeping Curry in front of him was to literally put his hand on the reigning NBA MVP’s forehead.
Anthony was called for a foul, and Curry made the shot anyway. The official ruled that it was a non-shooting foul and the basket was waved off.
As you can see from the photo above, Curry was left with a noticeable scratch on his forehead.
“Some, uh, great defense,” he joked after the game, via Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com. “I’m glad they called a foul, though.”
Anthony tried to explain the defensive approach.
“I was just putting my hand up,” he said. “I didn’t want him to raise up. Helluva player. I was just trying to figure out a way how you can stop him. … I saw [the scratch] after the fact.”
The Warriors won the game easily, but Curry actually had a rough night. He finished with just 13 points on 5-of-17 shooting.
We all saw the way LeBron James reacted when Curry stole the ball from him (video here) a couple weeks ago. Anthony wasn’t about to let anything embarrassing like that happen to him, no matter what it took.
Photo: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
