No one in the league can make scoring look as easy as Anthony

There may or may not have been a playoff louis vuitton shoes statement made by the Miami Heat on Sunday at Madison Square Garden, but there certainly was a personnel seminar conducted by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Stylistically and statistically, they sent a pointed message to the Knicks on the virtues of all-stars who go out of their way to share.

“Doing it by yourself is for when you’re young, when you’re 22, 23,” Wade said after the Heat absorbed 39 points by Carmelo Anthony through three and a half quarters before limiting him to an after-the-fact 3-point shot down the stretch of a 93-85 Miami victory. “That’s for then. When you get older, you appreciate it more when you got other guys that can get the job done and you don’t have to have the ball 90 percent of the time.”

Since Anthony has been Ray ban sunglasses in the N.B.A. for eight years, same as Wade and James, shouldn’t he feel the same way?

Not that Anthony has formally made a request to dominate the ball; he just generally seems most motivated and productive when the Knicks’ offense is flowing like a river through his marvelously gifted hands. And lately, while Anthony has been on a scoring binge that has bordered on unstoppable, the popular narrative around the Knicks has been that this would be burberry outlet the most prudent approach for the playoffs, with a returning Amar’e Stoudemire best-suited for minutes off the bench.

In effect, so Stoudemire wouldn’t get in Anthony’s way. And so he could enjoy a few minutes at a time of relative freedom to shoot as much as he wishes without Anthony on the floor or Tyson Chandler cluttering up the paint. It all sounded nice except that pro basketball at the highest playoff levels is about the alignment of stars — or co-stars — and trying to attain that enlightened state of championship co-existence.

It has already been overstated a few thousand times that Anthony and Stoudemire have offensive skill sets that overlap and ultimately detract from one another. But think back to last season when on several occasions the same assessment was made of James and Wade.

It was said that they both burberry bags needed the ball on the perimeter; that neither player was terribly interested in moving without it. The last shot of a close game? James kept taking and missing it, leaving Wade to wonder why he had campaigned for the self-styled King to bring his talents to Miami.

“It’s kind of about the rhythm, when you come from a place where you are used to getting so many touches,” Wade said after he and James combined for 57 points and 19 rebounds in a vintage tag-team performance. “Now you have other guys on the team and you can go six minutes without touching the ball. And then when you do touch it, you’re out of rhythm.”

Not that the Heat are issue-free. Chris Bosh said: “Even we struggle to this day” with stars taking turns. Before Sunday, Miami had lost 8 of its last 11 road games, making one wonder if they were biding regular-season time, even more bored than flawed.

Until Miami wins a title, its cast of role players louis vuitton handbags will remain suspect. Beyond their Big 3 of James, Wade and Bosh, the rest of the team scored 20 points Sunday. But the Heat play defense well enough to tighten the screws on a virtual one-man team. And after the Knicks took a 79-75 lead on a basket by the quick-triggered J. R. Smith — a risky second option in Stoudemire’s absence — with 8 minutes 8 seconds left, the Heat lifted their pressure enough to inspire Anthony to say: “I don’t even know what happened.”

It happens to the most prolific of scorers — and Anthony is among them — when too great a burden is placed upon them. The high screen is suddenly played more aggressively. The assigned defender — in this case James — becomes more intense in one’s favorite isolation position, which for Anthony is on the left side of the floor.

He made 1 of his last 7 shots. Most of his attempts — like those of Smith — were forced 3-pointers. No one in the league can make scoring look as easy as Anthony but the arms and legs are bound to get weary in the latter stages of a 27-shot, 15-free-throw marathon in which Anthony scored about half the Knicks’ points.

Meanwhile, Wade broke loose for 8 of oakley sunglasses Miami’s last 18 points, while James contributed a couple of long jumpers. Dying along with the Knicks’ hopes to beat the Heat at least once in three games this season before possibly meeting them in the playoffs was the theory that Anthony is better off without Stoudemire.

Mike Woodson, the Knicks’ interim coach, apparently gets this. He has already said Stoudemire will reclaim his starting power forward position when he is recovered from his back injury. Anthony will go back to small forward. In a condensed period of a few games, they will just have to figure one another out.

“It’s not easy,” Wade said. “It’s an Burberry designer ties for men white on sale best adjustment but it’s a good adjustment to make if you can get it right. It makes it easier for you and easier for the team if you are able to do it.”