NBA | Carmelo Anthony scores career-high 50 in Nuggets victory

DENVER — The last two points were the hardest for Carmelo Anthony.

With the game in the balance, the crowd chanting "MVP! MVP!" and Anthony's sights set on an offensive milestone, the Nuggets forward sank a pair of free throws with 16 seconds remaining to finish off a career-high 50-point performance and help Denver beat the New York Knicks 128-125 Friday night.

"They might have been the two toughest free throws I've shot in a while," Anthony said. "If I didn't say I wanted to get [50], I'd be lying to you. ... But most importantly they were two big free throws."

He wasn't kidding. Every point the Nuggets scored — Denver also got 32 from Chauncey Billups and 17 from J.R. Smith — was crucial to holding off a Knicks team that got 41 points from Al Harrington, one shy of his career high.

"You would hope when you have a night like this, that you'd definitely win one," Harrington said. "We're just upset we couldn't come out on top."

The problem was, Anthony's night was a little better.

"He's got the total package right now," Harrington said. "He's hitting threes, he's hitting mid-range, he can get to the free-throw line whenever he wants. When you play against a guy that's going like that, there's nothing you can really do. I think our guys did a pretty good job, because if they didn't he would have had 70."

Anthony is the only player in the NBA who has scored at least 20 points in each of his games this season.

Blazers fall

PORTLAND — Zach Randolph scored 21 points and Marc Gasol and O.J. Mayo added 19 each, and Memphis withstood a second-half rally by Portland to beat the Trail Blazers 106-96.

Memphis led by 29 points during the first half on the way to winning for the fifth time in seven games. Portland cut the Grizzlies' lead to eight points during the fourth quarter.

Randolph scored nine points in the fourth quarter.

Former UW and Garfield High standout Brandon Roy had 26 points, nine assists and eight rebounds for the Blazers, who also got a season-high 24 points from ex-Seattle Prep star Martell Webster.

Notes

• Minnesota fell 120-95 to Phoenix, the Timberwolves' 15th consecutive loss and one shy of tying the franchise record for consecutive defeats.

• Tim Duncan had 21 points and 12 rebounds, and Antonio McDyess had 15 points and 14 boards as San Antonio beat Houston 92-84 for its first road win in five tries this season.

• Antawn Jamison scored 24 points in Washington's 94-84 win over Miami, surpassing 16,000 career points.

• Kevin Durant had 33 points and 12 rebounds as Oklahoma City beat Milwaukee 108-90, the Thunder's sixth win in nine games.

• Larry Brown, who coached Allen Iverson in Philadelphia, said he thinks the 10-time All-Star "still has a passion to play" and shouldn't retire. An online report this week indicated Iverson had decided to end his career after receiving little interest from NBA teams. Brown, now coaching in Charlotte, said Iverson wouldn't be a good fit with the Bobcats because of the team's abundance of guards.

• Abe Pollin was remembered as a great friend and sports fan at the funeral for the Washington Wizards owner at the Washington Hebrew Congregation. Pollin, the NBA's longest-tenured owner, died Tuesday at 85.

• Golden State coach Don Nelson will miss three more games while recovering from a bout with pneumonia.

• Boston big man Rasheed Wallace said Toronto forward Hedo Turkoglu duped the referees into giving Wallace his fifth technical of the season by flopping.

"They've got to know that he's a [darn] flopper. That's all Turkododo do," Wallace said after the Celtics beat the Raptors 116-103. "Flopping shouldn't get you nowhere. He acts like I shot him."

Commissioner David Stern has complained about flopping because it's a way to fool the officials, but the league has been unable to find a way to punish or prevent it.