Melo to sit 3 games total with injury

December 23, 2008

DENVER -- Carmelo Anthony's sore right elbow will keep him out of the Denver Nuggets' next two games after he missed Monday's game, the team and the forward said Monday.

Anthony

"Right now is the best timing," Anthony said before Denver beat Portland 97-89. "Get it over with, get the rest and depend on my teammates to go out there and have somebody step up."

Anthony said he has two bone spurs -- one in each elbow -- and the team hopes resting him for a week will help. He missed the game against Portland on Monday and won't face the Blazers on Tuesday. He said he will also sit out Friday's home game against Philadelphia.

"It's trying to get as much length into the rehab in the middle of the season," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "We're hoping it settles down and it's more tendinitis than structural. Everyone feels confident it's tendinitis."

Anthony has been hampered by the injury since training camp and it's grown progressively worse in the past few weeks. He was held to 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting in a loss to Phoenix on Saturday.

He said it has bothered him since the start of the season.

"I think it was the beginning of the season, then in one game I fell on it," he said. "Then I fell on the other one. After the Charlotte game [on Nov. 11] I got some X-rays and I found out I had two bone spurs, one on each arm, and they just started getting worse and worse."

Anthony, who is averaging 20.5 points and 7.4 rebounds this season, said he got phone calls and text messages from friends and family concerned about how the elbow was affecting his performance.

"Yesterday was the deciding factor," he said. "Even after the game in Phoenix I got a lot of texts from people saying, 'Man, you don't look right out there.' They don't know what I'm going through with this elbow."

"Friends, a brother, family, agent, doctors, there were a lot of people said they didn't want me to mess around and have this thing keep stalling out throughout the whole year. This can be something if I keep getting hit on, it can linger the whole year."

Anthony tied an NBA record for points in a quarter with 33 against Minnesota on Dec. 10. He scored 45 against the Timberwolves and 27 against Golden State three days later, but his point production decreased over the next four games. He is hopeful rest will take care of the problem.

"I don't know. I'll try and see," he said. "After these three games we'll see what happens."

ESPN.com