Carmelo Anthony lit the Wizards up in Friday night's 111-100 victory for a career-high 49 points, going 19-for-25 from the field and 8-for-8 from the foul line. It was the highest total the Wizards have given up to a single player this season.

Anthony, who had 20 points in the first quarter alone, previously held a career high of 45 points. And he had actually left Friday's game in the third quarter with40 points under his belt. But when Nuggets coach George Karl realized his star player was only six points away from setting a new career high -- and believing the game wasn't totally in hand -- he sent him back into the game with 5:41 left and his team up 95-84.

The Denver fans, aware Melo was closing in on the milestone, whipped into a frenzy, screaming for him to get the ball every time the Nuggets came down the court.

Anthony scored on a jumper 35 seconds later, and then with 1:53 left to play, sank a layup to pick up his 44th point of the game. Then with 1:24 remaining, he hit a 3-pointer to surpass his previous high. He later sank two foul shots to complete his spree.

Wizards coach Eddie Jordan wasn't particularly pleased to have been a part of Anthony's big night.

"The end part of that game was a little bit on the classless side," Jordan said. "You know, we all have our ways. You get your butt kicked, the other team can do what they want to do, but I thought it was very classless how they closed the game out. But again, I have my opinion; I can say what I wanna say. That's what I thought it was."

When asked about Jordan's take, Karl disagreed.

"I didn't play my bench much all night. I just wanted to play the game out," he said. "Melo, the players felt, they wanted to give Melo an opportunity to get a career high. I think it's a positive. I don't think we embarrassed or tried to insult anybody. We played the game with our starters in the game, they decided to double team at the end and I thought our guys did the right thing. Just let it go."

Anthony also was taken aback by Jordan's opinion.

"I had 40 points and we was up only nine points with six minutes to go in the game," he said. "We were still trying to win the basketball game. We weren't trying to embarrass nobody out there. … I don't think it was classless. He can go ahead and say it, but I don't think it was classless."

It was tough to watch, and no doubt Jordan was frustrated by his team losing its sixth straight game, but "classless" might be a bit harsh. As Jordan said, he has a right to his own opinion and he does.

But here's my two cents:

If Melo came back into the game with the Nuggets up by 25 or something crazy like that, then I'd say Karl putting him in was kinda rubbing it in. But an 11-point lead against a Wizards team that had already cut double-digit leads down to four points twice isn’t that hefty an advantage.

So Melo going for another six points was pretty harmless. What DID look bad was the way he abused the Wizards. They were double- and sometimes triple-teaming him and everything he threw up went in. Even DeShawn Stevenson admitted that while talking informally after the game.

But hey, you can understand Eddie's mood. He's now down three starters with little relief in sight. Classless, though? Eh, that's probably a bit harsh.

- Mike Jones