Anthony's three-pointers destroy Indiana Pacers

DENVER (AP):

Carmelo Anthony won over the home crowd just before hitting the road. Anthony gave the fans at the Pepsi Center nothing to boo about on Sunday night, scoring 36 points in the Denver Nuggets' 121-107 victory over the Indiana Pacers, who lost their fifth straight.

Anthony had been subjected to jeers by the home crowd as trade talk intensified last week, but on this night, the Denver fans showed him plenty of love, especially when he was raining threes from all over the court as he put on a spectacular 23-point show in the third quarter.

Anthony's career-best six three-pointers all came in the third period as the Nuggets turned a close game into a laugher - a reversal of their game in November when the Pacers made their first 20 shots of the third quarter and rolled to a 144-113 win in Indianapolis.

Motivated

"We owed that team and we were looking to pay them back," Chauncey Billups said.

"It was embarrassing," agreed Anthony. "Not just for me, but for the team. So, of course, that motivated me tonight."

And when he found himself open over and over, he kept putting up three-pointers and they kept popping the net, going six of eight in all.

"Man, I mean, they just kept leaving me open," Anthony said. "The three-ball was falling. I've been looking for the three-ball for about a month and a-half now."

Consider it located.

Anthony, whose previous high was five three-pointers back in 2003, his rookie season, didn't look as tight as he had earlier in the week when the trade talk was so rampant.

"I don't know if it was the trade rumours slowing down (but) he was making a lot of shots," Tyler Hansbrough said. "He had some open looks and made the shots. He is Carmelo Anthony and he's going to make shots."