A player that came close to playing for the Chicago Bulls last season, forward Carmelo Anthony, got his revenge with the Blazers on Nov. 25.
It was a rough night for the Chicago Bulls through and through. A Portland Trail Blazers team that was banged up and struggling heading into this Nov. 25 showdown against the Bulls at home at the United Center saw them come in with one more win on the season than their opposition. But the Bulls were a one point underdog to Portland.
There were a lot of eyes watching a former rostered player for the Bulls for less than 24 hours last season, future Hall-of-Fame forward Carmelo Anthony. The Blazers signed Melo to a non-guaranteed contract earlier this month to plug the forward depth void they had in the frontcourt rotation. Melo was not able to make as much of an impact in any Blazers win as he did against the Bulls on Monday night.
It looked as if Melo was just trying to get his feet under him in Portland in his three games previous to facing the Bulls. Up to this point, he averaged 13.0 points per game, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.7 assists. He wasn’t making a positive impact at all for the Blazers as he had a player efficiency rating sitting at just 5.0 and -0.2 win shares.
Per 100 possessions, the Blazers weren’t better than a net negative-seven with Melo on the floor on defense and were a -9.8 with him on the floor on offense. Yet, there were signs that he was picking up his game in each of his three outings since signing with the Blazers.
However, in this game against the Bulls, Melo really got going in the second half. Melo finished the night with a game-high 25 points on 10-of-20 shooting from the field along with eight rebounds, two assists, and one steal. He also turned the ball over just twice and had three personal fouls, which isn’t bad in 31 minutes of playing time.
Although it looked like the Bulls were commanding the pace of the game early on, they never really got a grasp consistently. According to ESPN’s Win Probability chart for this game against the Blazers, there was never better than a 57 percent chance that the Bulls were going to knock off Portland.
This game felt almost exactly like how the Bulls fared against the Houston Rockets earlier this season. Ironically enough, both losses to the Rockets and Blazers came by the final score of 117-94 at home at the United Center.
What is also ironic about that score commonality in the Bulls losses to the Rockets and Blazers is the Melo connection. Last season, the Rockets dumped Melo for a “cash considerations” deal to the Bulls that never saw him play in a single game in the Windy City. The Bulls promptly waived Melo after he landed in Chicago.
This had to be a good revenge game for Melo as he was actually one of the more effective players on the floor. He even had one nice slam on the Bulls defense that showed a new level of explosion off the drive compared to his past three games.
If Melo can continue to make this type of impact for the Blazers, this signing will be well worth it for them moving forward.