NEW YORK -- Carmelo Anthony let it fly from halfcourt, and when it went in, he had proof of what was already obvious. "When I made the shot at the half, I told myself the zone was there," Anthony said. Soon, he had passed Kevin Durant. Next was Bernard King, and finally Kobe Bryant. Three records, all shot down in one scintillating performance. Anthony scored a career-high 62 points to break the franchise and current Madison Square Garden marks, and the New York Knicks beat the Charlotte Bobcats 125-96 on Friday night to stop a five-game losing streak. Anthony made 23 of 35 shots, one when he leapt from centre court to beat the halftime buzzer, and even added 13 rebounds in the NBAs highest-scoring performance this season. Anthony had 56 after three quarters, bettering Durants previous season high of 54, and stayed in for the first few minutes of the fourth to break Kings Knicks record of 60 set in 1984 and Bryants arena record of 61 set five years ago. "I made history tonight, with the performance, but just to be a part of that group of people, like I said, theres only a small group of people that knows what that zone feels like and tonight I was one of them," Anthony said. It was easily the highlight of the season for Anthony, on pace to miss the playoffs for the first time in his career and facing frequent questions about his future with the team as he heads into free agency this summer. That was all on hold for one night, the focus simply on Anthonys amazing scoring. He easily passed his previous career best of 50 points and possibly couldve even passed 70 or more had the game been close. Instead, he checked out for good after breaking the records when he banked in a short jumper with 7:24 to play. "Ive seen him score a lot of points, but that was some performance right there," said J.R. Smith, who was also a teammate of Anthonys in Denver. Smith noticed a different focus from Anthony before the game, a seriousness replacing the usual laughter. Perhaps some of it was some added pregame motivation after the team watched a video featuring Muhammad Ali, one of Anthonys favourite athletes. With the Knicks desperately thin in the frontcourt after losing Andrea Bargnani on top of the injuries to Amare Stoudemire and Kenyon Martin, Anthony simply took on more of the scoring load as New York won for the first time on its eight-game homestand after dropping the first three. King, elected to the Hall of Fame last year, said he was proud of Anthony, who he considers one of the best players in the game. "If anyone was to break my Knicks record that I have held for so long, Im absolutely delighted that it was Carmelo," King said through the teams public relations department. Al Jefferson had 25 points and nine rebounds for the Bobcats, snapping his streak of four straight 20-10 games. Charlotte had won two in a row, holding division leaders Toronto and the Los Angeles Clippers to an average of 93 points. But the Knicks, who had lost to the Bobcats 10 days ago to start their current skid, shot 56 per cent. So what happened to Charlottes defence? "Melo. Enough said," Jefferson said. Fans chanted "Melo! Melo!" when the Knicks had the ball in the second half, as if they were calling a play. That was replaced by "We Want Melo! We want Melo!" after he checked out. He made 20 of his first 26 shots against what had been a good defensive team, but there was no defence for the zone Anthony was in. "When hes in one of those zones, aint nothing nobody can do about it," Jefferson added. Last seasons scoring champion had eight points in the first 2 1/2 minutes, went 8 of 10 in the first quarter and had 20 points as the Knicks led 30-21. He skipped his usual break and kept playing deep into the second quarter before finally taking a seat with 4:34 left, shortly after missing an open jumper. He returned with 2 1/2 minutes left to finish the half in style, throwing in a buzzer beater from just inside halfcourt to cap his 15-of-21 half and make it 67-46, Stoudemire laughing hysterically on the bench in his brown suit jacket and the rest of the players leaping in celebration. "Just to see everybody smiling once again, thats what I was more excited to see," Anthony said. "Guys on the bench smiling, high-fiving, having fun once again, thats the only thing I care about." Turned out Anthony was just getting started. He made his first five shots in the second half and the Bobcats would eventually grow frustrated, picking up two technical fouls on one play after Anthonys 3-pointer late in the third. He made both free throws, part of his 10-for-10 showing at the line, and said he tried to check himself out earlier but his teammates wouldnt allow it. Notes: Kemba Walker, who had 25 points in all three previous matchups against the Knicks, sat out his third game in a row with a sprained left ankle. ... The Knicks said Bargnani, who tore the ulner collateral ligament in his left elbow, wont require surgery and will instead just need rest and treatment. Lars Eller Jersey . -- Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu will be the Dodgers starting pitchers in their two-game season-opening series in Australia against the Arizona Diamondbacks. John Carlson Jersey . According the CSNBayArea.com, the 31-year-old suffered an ACL injury in his right knee on Friday when he collided with Anaheims Emerson Etem during a pre-season game. http://www.officialcapitalsfanstore.com/.com) - The Carolina Panthers won for the first time in seven games last week, were without Cam Newton due to a car accident this week, but somehow sit atop the much-maligned NFC South. Evgeny Kuznetsov Jersey . "Its way better than running gassers, thats for sure," the inside linebacker said Monday, when the Chargers started their third and final week of organized team activities, which are practices in shorts, jerseys and helmets. Alex Ovechkin Jersey .Connor Graham, Alex Lintuniemi and Sam Studnicka also scored for Ottawa (11-8-2). Liam Herbst made 21 saves for the win.Brendan Lemieux had both of Barries (10-10-2) goals. ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Hawks are sticking with general manager Danny Ferry even though the teams new majority owner wants him fired for racially charged comments about Luol Deng. CEO Steve Koonin on Tuesday told the Hawks flagship radio station that he made the decision to discipline Ferry but allowed him to keep his job managing the team. He did not say what the punishment was, but noted that he relied on a law firms three-month investigation of Ferry and him describing Deng as someone who "has a little African in him." Ferry made the inflammatory comments about Deng in a conference call with the Hawks ownership group in June when the team pursued Deng as a free agent. Deng, who now plays for the Miami Heat, responded saying, "Im proud to say I actually have a lot of African in me, not just a little." A letter from co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. recommends that Ferry resign or be fired. Gearon said Ferry made that description of Deng to the teams ownership group. His June 12 letter to co-owner Bruce Levenson said Ferry went on to say, "Not in a bad way, but hes like a guy who would have a nice store out front and sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back." Added Gearon: "Ferry completed the racial slur by describing the player (and impliedly all persons of African descent) as a two-faced liar and cheat." Deng, 29, was born in what is now South Sudan. His father moved his family to Egypt and then England. The 10-year NBA veteran is now a British citizen, played for England in the 2012 Olympics and said hes proud to represent his heritage "on the highest stage." Deng, like Ferry, also played at Duke. "Every person should have the right to be treated with respect and evaluated as an individual, rather than be reduced to a stereotype," Deng said. "I am saddened and disappointed that this way of thinking still exists today. I am even more disturbed that it was shared so freely in a business setting." Koonin said Atlanta law firm Alston and Bird went through 24,000 documents, conducted 19 interviews and read "every email Danny Ferry has ever sent as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks." Koonin said no other negative information on Ferry was found in the probe. "I took their advice and far exceeded their advice," Koonin said of the undisclosed punishment he imposed on Ferry. Hawks spokesman Garin Narain said the investigation of Ferrys comments uncovered a racially inflammatory email written two years ago by Levenson. That discovery led to Levensons announcement Sunday that he will sell his controlling share of the team. Despite Gearons desire to remove Ferry, Koonin is standing by him. "I understand that emotion," Koonin said of Gearons recommendation. "I certainly understand that emotion. I know people who have said that to me. But if we sentence people based on what everybody wanted, we wouldnt have a justice system.dddddddddddd "I listened to what (the law firm) said because they had done the work ... so thats a decision Im willing to live with." Gearon warned Levenson he believed Ferrys comments "could be fatal to the franchise" if made public. Gearon said he and the other co-owners "were appalled that anyone would make such a racist slur under any circumstance, much less the GM of an NBA franchise on a major conference call." Gearon declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press on Tuesday. Ferry apologized Tuesday but said he was only repeating what he had heard about Deng. "In regards to the insensitive remarks that were used during our due diligence process, I was repeating comments that were gathered from numerous sources during background conversations and scouting about different players," Ferry said in a statement released by the team. "I repeated those comments during a telephone conversation reviewing the draft and free agency process. Those words do not reflect my views, or words that I would use to describe an individual and I certainly regret it. I apologize to those I offended and to Luol, who I reached out to Monday morning." Koonin has agreed to meet with Atlanta civil rights leaders on Wednesday. The Rev. Markel Hutchins said Monday he asked for the meeting to discuss what he believes is a racist attitude throughout the organization. In his letter to Levenson, Gearon compared Ferrys remarks to much-publicized racist comments which forced Donald Sterling to sell the Clippers. "We believe these comments by Ferry were far worse than Sterlings because they were not from a private personal conversation -- they were in a business environment on a business matter in front of a dozen or more people," Gearon wrote. "If Ferry would make such a slur in a semi-public forum, we can only imagine what he has said in smaller groups or to individuals." Ferry was named the Hawks general manager in 2012 following two years as vice-president of basketball operations for the San Antonio Spurs. He was general manager for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005-2010 and helped build the team that advanced to the 2007 NBA Finals. There was renewed optimism about the direction of the team after Ferry hired coach Mike Budenholzer from San Antonio in 2013. Now, the turmoil threatens to derail all their efforts. New ownership must be found and despite the support of Koonin, Ferrys ability to survive the crisis is unknown. In his letter of apology, Ferry pledged he would learn from the incident. "I am committed to learning from this and deeply regret this situation," Ferry said. "I fully understand we have work to do in order to help us create a better organization; one that our players and fans will be proud of, on and off the court, and that is where my focus is moving forward." ' ' '