Melo hits 2nd game winner in a row

You can't question Melo's heart or determination to win this year. These past two wins, Melo's put on a clinic in both.

Fresh off a thrilling win over an equally depleted Houston Rockets squad, Melo led his short-handed squad (yeah, we've been hearing that a lot this year) against the mighty Suns, who are currently 2nd in the Western Conference.

The game was tight thru-out with the Suns never leading by more than 9 points, and the Nuggets never leading by more than a handful.

Heros of the game were Carmelo Anthony, Earl Boykins, and Eduardo Najera. Carmelo had another near career night - 43 points on near 50% shooting and a team high 11 rebounds. Earl had a new career high 33 points with nearly half of them coming in the 4th and the three overtimes. He also had 8 assists to lead the team along with Watson. Najera had 13 points and 9 rebounds, but his hustle at key points of the game, especially in the overtimes were huge in keeping the Nuggets in this contest. His steal from Suns guard Steve Nash led to a breakaway layup with less than 15 seconds left in the 2nd overtime, helping to force a third one.

Earl Watson had another stellar night off the bench with 15 points, making 4-6 threes and 8 assists

Carmelo shot the game winner with the score tied, over Shawn Marion, with just 3.4 seconds left. See inset picture on the right. The impressive part was that a few possessions before, Melo had taken an inadvertant knee to the head and nose from Najera after scoring on a drive to the basket. So, even with blurry vision and a ball of cottom stuffed up his nose, he calmly answered the challenge of ending this hard fought game after 63 action packed minutes.

Game Summary written by: aswitzer

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