Sixers' Doc Rivers Pays Respect to Carmelo Anthony Following Loss to Blazers

Melo's still Melo

The Philadelphia 76ers played a decent overall game on Thursday night against the Portland Trail Blazers, but decent isn't good enough when your opponent is hitting everything. Through the first quarter on Thursday, the Trail Blazers wrapped up the first 12 minutes of action by draining 53-percent of their shots from three.

Although that average lowered to 33-percent in the second quarter, they still went into halftime shooting 50-percent from beyond-the-arc. Meanwhile, the Sixers were hitting just 15-percent. Despite struggling in the shooting department, the Sixers still had a three-point lead heading into the half.

By the time the third quarter came and went, it seemed the Sixers were putting themselves in the driver's seat as they were looking to build on their small lead heading into the fourth quarter.

But then Carmelo Anthony happened. Coming off the bench, Anthony had just seven points through 13 minutes of action late in the game. Suddenly, the future Hall of Famer felt a sense of urgency and started heating up. Once he made a couple of tough shots, Anthony couldn't slow down.

With eight total field goal attempts in the fourth quarter, Anthony knocked down six of them. Three of which came from beyond-the-arc. In total, Anthony put up 17 points in the final quarter, which helped him pick up 24 total points off the bench in 25 minutes of action on Thursday night.

"We took tough bad shots," Rivers admitted on Thursday. "That got them running. That got them easy baskets. They got Carmelo going, and once Carmelo gets it going, you know, he's still Carmelo. And he reminded us of that today."

Indeed he did. Melo's contributions gave the Blazers enough to close out their second win over the Sixers this year with a 118-114 victory. Following the game, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers issued credit where it's due. While everybody on Portland's side deserves recognition for their win -- it might not have been attainable without Anthony's monster fourth quarter on Thursday night. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_