Carmelo Anthony sat on the bench for the entirety of the fourth quarter in the OKC Thunder's 126-125 overtime loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday.Despite the fact that he was tired, and Jerami Grant was hot, Melo said he was surprised by the move."Yeah, of course," Anthony said. "Of course I wanted to be there, but that wasn't my decision to make, so I kind of leave that to coach on that one."Anthony was set to enter the game with around three minutes left in regulation, but elected to sit himself back down after Jerami Grant sunk a clutch three-pointer to put the Thunder up by six. 

However, after Nuggets guard Will Barton had tied the game with 15 seconds left on the clock, Anthony said he was surprised not to take the floor following the Thunder's timeout. 

"I was sitting for the whole fourth and there was like two and some change on the clock," Anthony said. "[Grant] hit that 3, so it was like just let him continue to go out there and just play it out and see what happens. But then we wind up going to overtime."

The ten-time All Star noted that this was the first time he'd ever told a coach to keep him on the bench that late in a close game in his career: 

"I think I've done it before, but not that late in the game, and in the quarter," he said. "I've done it before where a guy has it going and didn't want to break his rhythm. A lot of times when guys have it going like that, especially role players guys, bench guys, that gives them confidence, that you do believe in those guys. But not that late in a game like that, never did that."

Thunder head coach Billy Donovan explained his reasoning for keeping Melo on the bench, saying: 

"It was kind of a hard thing, I wanted to put Melo back in the game, but I think that unit was playing so well at that particular time, we were on a pretty good run, we were playing good, Jerami made a 3 when I wanted to put Carmelo back in,"

The 33-year-old actually had one of his better games of recent, putting up 23 points and nine boards and going 5-10 from beyond the arc. And, given Russell Westbrook's struggles from three, it was odd that Melo didn't take the floor for a potential game winner. 

Westbrook took, and missed, a three with two seconds left on the clock to send the game to OT where the Nuggets handed OKC it's third straight loss. 

They fell to sixth in the West with the loss, just half a game ahead of the Jazz and Pelicans in seventh and eighth. A first round matchup with the Rockets or Warriors could await them should this slump continue.