Carmelo Anthony is still wearing a Denver Nuggets uniform, but the way he played Sunday evening against the New Orleans Hornets, you'd think he has already checked out of the Mile High City.
Melo finished the 96-87 Hornets victory with eight points on a dismal 3-of-11 shooting from the field. In fact, the entire Nuggets team shot poorly, going 30-of-74 (40 percent) as a team. I'd almost be inclined to say that Denver didn't have a leading scorer, but pressed for an answer, the stat book would say that Chauncey Billups led the team with 13 points.
Billups, whose name is also being thrown around in trade talk, one upped Melo's poor shooting performance, going 2-12 from the field and 0-6 from behind the three-point arc. The majority of his points came on making all nine of his free throw attempts.
Chris Paul led the Hornets (22-16) in scoring, registering 20 points, while Emeka Okafor grabbed a game high 13 boards.
The Nuggets (20-16) have now dropped three straight games, after their four game win streak was snapped last week. They were hampered tonight by the absence of three of their mainstays, as Ty Lawson, Chris Andersen and Kenyon Martin all sat out the game with injuries.
The Nuggets next play Tuesday night against the Phoenix Suns at the Pepsi Center in Denver.