NBA Scores And More: Amar’e Stoudemire’s Knicks Outstretch Carmelo Anthony’s Nuggets

The New York Knicks hosted the Denver Nuggets for an early Sunday game, and as you'd expect, the focus was on what could be rather than what is. Despite the Knicks' seven-game winning streak coming in -- the team's longest since the Jeff Van Gundy era -- and a reborn home court advantage at Madison Square Garden, all eyes were on a man in navy blue: Carmelo Anthony.

Immediately after the game, news surfaced that 'Melo would only sign an extension this season if traded to the Knicks. Anthony's own quotes after the game sure made New York seem like his top choice after the trade rumor season gears. And why wouldn't it be? The New Jersey Nets were the other team most frequently mentioned in preseason rumors; that team is now 6-17.

Over the eight-game winning streak, the Knicks are averaging an offensive efficiency of 115.7, which is a good bit better than the Lakers' current league-best mark for the whole season (113.5). The Knicks have won 13 of their last 14 games; the team's average offensive efficiency in that stretch is 115.2. Many of the teams in that stretch have been weak. In fact, the Nuggets are just the second team with a winning record the Knicks have beaten in the last 14 games. The other was the Hornets, and the single loss in the span for New York came against the third winning team, the Hawks.

The Knicks can only beat the teams in front of them, and Stoudemire's crew is certainly beating up on opponents. But there's certainly room and perhaps need for a second scoring star. Amar'e can't keep this up forever, and while Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton and Wilson Chandler have taken turns stepping up behind him, adding a force the caliber of 'Melo would make this offense just that much more daunting. That's why the Knicks (and New York media) are obsessed with the idea. The Knicks' hot run has just made the whole scenario more appealing. We've seen what Amar'e can do back under the spell of Mike D'Antoni. Now let's see him with another star to pull some of that gravity away.

Magic 94, Clippers 85: Orlando smacked L.A. into submission early, leading 44-19 four minutes into the second quarter. But Blake Griffin (27 points, 16 rebounds) and Eric Gordon (28 points, eight assists) made it respectable as the Clippers shut down Orlando in the third, holding the Magic to just 10 points and pulling to within six points three minutes in the third. The Magic was never made more uncomfortable than that, however, and broke its weird four-game losing streak.

Spurs 95, Blazers 78: Portland's mini-revival came to an abrupt and jolting end. The Blazers had won four straight since last Sunday, moving to 12-11, above .500 for the first time since the team was 8-7 the day after Thanksgiving. But the Spurs just crushed Portland, holding the Blazers to 38 percent shooting from the floor. It was San Antonio's best performance in terms of shooting defense this season, and that's obviously saying a lot. Brandon Roy tweaked his left knee -- the one that has been the source of so much pain and consternation this season -- early in the game and ended up shooting four of 16 and drawing not a single free throw. For the Spurs, George Hill had 22 points in nine field goal attempts; yes, Felicia, that's pretty darned efficient.

76ers 88, Hornets 70: That score isn't backwards: The Hornets got taken to the woodshed by the Sixers. Chris Paul has played at least 30 minutes 334 times. His three assists Sunday tied the lowest in any of those games, and marked the first time since 2007 he had as few as three assists in a game in which he played 30 minutes. Would you like an explanation? Here you go: Paul's teammates shot 16-67. And three of those makes were by Paul's back-up, Jarrett Jack. Paul shot 8-12, and the rest of his team shot 23.8 percent. No one man can overcome all that.

Lakers 99, Nets 92: Pau Gasol played 42 minutes, and had better be billing Andrew Bynum by the hour for doing his job in addition to his own. The Lakers needed every little bit of Pau in Sunday's early game against New Jersey, as the Nets made things difficult by hitting the offensive glass hard, grabbing 15 o-boards in 48 opportunities (31 percent). Kobe Bryant scored 32 points, Brook Lopez had 25 and 9, Devin Harris was two rebounds away from a 16-points, 10-assist triple-double, and Kris Humphries, after no doubt sharing crazy Kardashi-chica stories with future brother-in-law once removed Lamar Odom, had a double-double.

Thunder 106, Cavaliers 77: The Cleveland Cavaliers are an awful, awful team, have been all season, and are just now showing it in the win-loss ledger. It is as if everyone in the world has forgotten about the 2008-09 and 2009-10 Washington Wizards, a team that featured Antawn Jamison as its best player. Combined record for those teams: 45-119. Jamison is probably Cleveland's best player, though on every third day Anderson Varejao could make an argument of his own. That's the problem. This team is busy deciding whether Antawn Jamison or Anderson Varejao is its best player. High time for implosion was July 8, roughly 9:30 PM Eastern, when LeBron uttered the words "Souf Beach." The Cavs tinkered, thought they could get back to the playoffs and failed. High time for implosion is yesterday. Give J.J. Hickson and Ramon Sessions some space to breathe, and dream of tomorrow.

(Did I just manage to not write a single word about this game? OK. The Thunder shot 53 percent, and the Cavs had two players who shot exactly 50 percent -- 4-of-8 Anthony Parker and 1-of-2 Leon Powe -- and exactly zero players who shot better than 50 percent.)

Also, James Harden was all, "More like J.J HickSONNED, amirite?"