Melo fractures hand

[Andrew]

As mentioned in the game recap on Yahoo! NBA:

Carmelo Anthony scored 21 points and had a season-high nine assists despite suffering a “probable” fracture in his right hand in the Denver Nuggets’ 135-115 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night.

The team, which described the injury as a “probable” fracture, said it doesn’t know how much time Anthony will miss. He’s going to see a specialist Tuesday.

Anthony injured his hand when the ball was slapped away early in the third quarter. He continued playing, but frequently grabbed at his hand. He had the Nuggets trainer check it out a few times when play stopped and then left for good late in the fourth quarter.

Stating the obvious here but that's bad news for the Nuggets who have put together a three game lead over the Blazers for the lead in the Northwest Division and just won their fourth straight game. I hate to see stars out with injury no matter who they play for as I enjoy seeing the best of the best go head-to-head so hopefully it won't keep him out too long though it doesn't sound very good.

[hova-]

According to RealGM he will be out for at least 3 weeks. They will miss him while facing many strong opponents during this stretch : MIA, DET, DAL, PHO, ORL, HOU to name the best.

[Oskar]

Sad .. He'll not make the ASG as a starter because of this, possibly. It will quite screw the Nuggets too, Melo, despite scoring career low, is easily their best scorer and player overall.

Oh, and bydaway, I'm going to be last in the NLSC Fantasy league because of this, fine.

[jonthefon]

Nuggets will be fine. Roy and Boozer are out and the two other teams in the Northwest are useless.

Oskar, usually losing one superstar guy for three weeks won't hurt that much, just keep remembering to start all your guys . Then again, Marion being out for the last two months last season killed me down the stretch and in the playoffs.

[Kenny]

As much as it's a big blow, I think Denver will be fine. Chauncy, K-Mart and JR can pull their weight on the offensive end, plus people like Klieza and Nene can make contributions.

[CMJ3]

I think we will be ok, Smith can take the reigns and become the number 1 target on offense, also look for Chauncey to average around 25ppg over the stretch that Melo is out. If only we had some more offense off the bench if Smith gets the start hmm maybe its time to make that trade for an offensive big.

[homicide1550]

My main man Melo wont make it to the ASG if he will miss 3-4 weeks.. Hopefully Billups will make it as a reserve...

[Andrew]

Sad .. He'll not make the ASG as a starter because of this, possibly. It will quite screw the Nuggets too, Melo, despite scoring career low, is easily their best scorer and player overall.

He wasn't likely to make it as a starter before the injury either, the gap had widened somewhat between his votes and Amare's. Mind you, I don't think his injury would stop people voting for him, look what happened with Vince Carter in 2003. It's probably cost him a selection by the coaches though as their attention will likely be drawn to someone else.

[Fresh8]

This is good and bad IMO... because now Billups will show everyone how good he is! Not that he isn't doing it at the moment. I want to see if the Butler can handle the extra burden. I guess at least he's only out for 3 weeks - he at least gets a rest and comes back fit

[Andrew]

Billups is already proving his worth to the Nuggets though. Not much good in it as far as I can see, except perhaps that he won't be out the rest of the year and we're still a way off from the Playoffs.

[Fresh8]

I did say he was already proving his worth; I just want to see if he has any surprises for us.

But yeah, bad for Denver if Melo's absense hurts their record.

[Modifly]

Believe me, with the way teams in the west are playing, especially the Rockets, the Nuggets are just fine. Houston cant seem to win a game nowadays.. sigh..

[Andrew]

Tough break for the Heat/Nuggets game on ESPN Australia today, too.