Carmelo Anthony Suspended For Fifteen Games By NBA

Saturday night started out as any other for Carmelo Anthony, he scored often, his team was winning by a large margin over the Knicks, and things appeared to be staying the course for the season.

Then late in the game a brawl occured, started by a hard foul on one of the Knicks, the altercation quickly rose into a full fledged brawl, and just as it appeared that tempers were calming down, Anthony came flying in and puched one of the Knicks in the face.

The bad call in judgement will now cost Anthony 15 games as commissioner David Stern came down hard on all participants in the fight, hoping to send a message that such behavior will not be tolerated. It is the latest in a string of events by Stern to try to clean up the league's image.

The suspension comes at an unfortunate time for Anthony, who is having his best season as a pro and is currently the leagues top scorer in points per game. It also is going to be tough on his team, who is already battling with a Western Conference that has most of the leagues powerhouse teams. The Nuggets will now have to hope they can stay in the playoff race until Anthony comes back from suspension.

Another effect of the Anthony suspension will be the betting lines on Nugget's games while he is suspended. Not only could the actual betting lines be different, but the over-under totals will be drastically changed as the Nuggets try to find someone to offset all the points their leading scorer put per game.



2006-12-19