ANTHONY

NEW YORK (Reuters):

NBA scoring leader Carmelo Anthony was suspended for 15 games, drawing the heaviest punishment among seven players banned yesterday after a brawl between the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets on Saturday.

The melee at Madison Square Garden erupted with 1:15 left in the fourth quarter when Knicks guard Mardy Collins committed a hard foul on Denver's J.R. Smith on a drive to the basket.

Anthony, a Denver forward averaging a league-best 31.6 points per game, received his 15-game ban for shoving New York's Nate Robinson and punching Collins in the face.

Worst fracas

All 10 players on court were ejected from the game in the worst fracas in the NBA since a 2004 incident in Detroit when Indiana Pacers players charged into the stands and fought fans.

Other suspensions for Saturday's incident included: Knicks guard Robinson 10 games; Nuggets guard Smith 10 games; Knicks guard Collins six games, and Knicks forward Jared Jeffries four games. New York center Jerome James and Denver forward Nene each drew a one-game suspension for leaving the bench.

The Knicks and Nuggets organisations have each been fined $500,000, NBA Commissioner David Stern said.

"The NBA and its players represent a game of extraordinary skill, athleticism and grace, and, for good or bad, set an example for the entire basketball world, on and off the court," Stern said in a conference call announcing the suspensions.