Carmelo Anthony to face Knicks in revenge game Tuesday

Carmelo Anthony has been the talk of the NBA and starts a bit of a reunion tour this week. There isn’t an initial stop on the tour, but the Portland Trail Blazers will welcome in Anthony’s former team, the New York Knicks, on Tuesday.

Melo spent parts of seven seasons in New York, the basketball Mecca, playing in the prime of his career for the Knicks. He averaged 24.7 points and 7.0 rebounds per game in 412 career regular-season games with New York. In 2012-13, he led the NBA in scoring at 28.7 points per game and carried the Knicks to their best record (54-28) in the past two decades.

The Knicks upset the Boston Celtics in the first round before losing to the Indiana Pacers in the semifinals. Those were good times, right? Melo led the Knicks to three straight playoff berths from 2010-2013 before things unraveled and Anthony left for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Now with the Trail Blazers, Melo is averaging 15.9 points through 10 games and has revived his career in a way. Portland is at 9-15 and on the outside of the West playoff picture, but are only two games out of the 8-seed. The Trail Blazers’ next stop after hosting the Knicks is on the road to face another familiar spot for Melo: Denver to take on the Nuggets, the team that drafted him back in 2003.

As far as the betting side of things, DraftKings Sportsbook is offering up a giveaway in honor of Melo.

Personally, I think Melo is going to smash this O/U of 14.5 ... I mean, for one, the Blazers need a win badly to get into the playoff chase and the Knicks don’t really have anyone outside of Marcus Morris who can guard Anthony. I think Portland will get Melo the ball often in this game and he’ll have plenty of scoring opportunities.