5 Reasons Why Carmelo Anthony is OKC's Kryptonite

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Carmelo Anthony is enduring his worst season as a shooter

It was an electrifying setup in downtown Oklahoma City on Sunday night as the Oklahoma City Thunder hosted the Portland Trail Blazers at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. With the third seed in the Western Conference thrown open at the back of a two-game losing streak of the Trail Blazers, there was much on the plate for the Thunder as they looked to avoid a season sweep by Damian Lillard and Co.

However, the Oregon based outfit had different plans as they rushed to an 18-point lead early on in the game against the home side. What ensued thereon was a chargeback led by Raymond Felton and Jerami Grant with the rest of the Thunder bench following suit. By half-time, the deficit was cut down to five points.

The second half, however, was a fiercely contested ball game with the lead going to fro in what felt like a playoffs game. The Trail Blazers snatched all the spoils in the end with a 108-105 win but not without Carmelo Anthony failing to tie things up for the Thunder on two occasions.

#5 Carmelo with another torrid outing

While all the members of the OKC big three shot poorly tonight, coming up with many bricks in the process, Carmelo Anthony was the worst of the lot. Anthony just managed 6 points from 29 minutes of playing time. He went 3 for 13 overall and 0 for 5 from beyond the arc.

He was involved in some important plays for OKC as you would expect given his stature as a senior player. Anthony though, who is playing his 15th season in the NBA, failed to deliver on most occasions, especially the clutch ones.

Carmelo started the game poorly, missing his first three shots before scoring from a layup. He continued his underwhelming run against throughout the game. His antics in the clutch though were utterly disappointing.

With 18.5 seconds left to play and the Thunder trailing the game by two points, Russell Westbrook passed the ball to Melo who was double-teamed in the corner by the Portland defense. Westbrook made himself available for a return pass but Carmelo decided to ignore him and went for a drive to the basket which resulted in a costly turnover.

In the final play of the game, Carmelo Anthony was allowed the opportunity to shoot a wide-open three that would tie the game, but he missed that as well.

Early on in the fourth quarter, Anthony failed to shift the momentum with OKC's favor by missing two consecutive wide-open three-point shots. The Thunder were leading 101-98 at that point. Any of those attempts, if made, could have changed the narrative of the game for the Thunder.

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