New York Knicks: Remembering Carmelo Anthony’s greatest scoring night as a Knick

During a contest in January 2014 against the then-Charlotte Bobcats, Carmelo Anthony scored a career-high 62 points for the New York Knicks.

Former New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony‘s NBA future is currently facing uncertainty. After playing just 10 games last as a member of the Houston Rockets, the team decided to cut ties with the former scoring champion.

Fast forward to August and Anthony remains an unsigned free agent. Regardless of how he is currently viewed among NBA circles nowadays, Anthony star should be remembered as one of the all-time great scorers during his heyday.

More from Hoops Habit

• 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
• Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
• Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
• Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
• NBA Trades: The Lakers bolster their frontcourt in this deal with the Pacers

Anthony was an elite isolation scorer during his time playing in Madison Square Garden. Most notably, his tremendous scoring ability was on display during Jan. 24 of the 2013-14 season.

In what was seemingly an irrelevant outing against the lowly Charlotte Bobcats, Anthony had his best game as a pro. The 10-time All-Star dropped an absurd 62 points while grabbing 13 rebounds en route to a resounding 125-96 victory for New York.

The game itself did not mean a whole lot, as the Knicks finished the season with a disappointing 37-45 record and missed out on the postseason.

Despite this, the performance itself remains noteworthy. Anthony’s offensive outburst set a New York franchise record for most points in a single game which stands to this day.

Unsurprisingly, from the opening tip, Melo was locked in. Before even the seven-minute mark of the first quarter, he was already in double figures with 10 points. For the remainder of the period, he managed to knock down a slew of contested mid-range jumpers.

By the time the buzzer sounded marking the end of the quarter, Anthony had scored 20 points.

Knowing that Anthony was clearly in a zone, the Bobcats decided to assign some of their better defenders on him in order to keep him in check.

This decision later proved to be futile. Charlotte’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Anthony Tolliver and Josh McRoberts all took turns guarding Anthony before halftime. They were all solid defensive players.  It simply did not matter that night.

Anthony sized them up one by one and proceeded to shot over the top of them with ease. He added another 17 points to his total by halftime, scoring an astounding 37 at the half.

In dramatic fashion, to beat the buzzer Anthony nailed a half-court heave leading to an eruption from the Garden crowd and a 67-46 halftime lead for the Knicks.

For whatever reason, the Bobcats still decided to not double-team Anthony. To start the third quarter, Charlotte once again asked Kidd-Gilchrist to contain the future Hall of Famer.

After just two and a half minutes into the second half, Anthony already scored three isolation buckets on the former University of Kentucky star. Throughout the game, he was scorchingly efficient, but it was not until the third period that he began to catch fire from beyond the arc.

What was Carmelo Anthony’s highest-scoring game with the Knicks?

To end the third, Melo connected on three more 3-point field goals. Heading into the final 12 minutes, his point total was at 56.

As the outcome of the game was already decided by the beginning of the fourth quarter, Anthony did not play much of the final frame. After breaking the franchise scoring record with just over seven minutes remaining, the Knicks decided to sit him out for the rest of the night.

Anthony ended the game converting on 23 of his 35 field goal attempts. Also, he was able to bury six of his 11 shots taken from 3-point range. It was a truly historic shooting display from one of the league’s best scorers of this century.

This mesmerizing display of talent will certainly go down as one of the greatest performances in Carmelo Anthony’s NBA career.