Carmelo Anthony figured that with Kenyon Martin out and Chris Andersen coming back from two sprained ankles, Nene would have his hands full with Emeka Okafor.

So, who was left to clean up the glass?

‘Melo.

Anthony pulled down a career-best 18 rebounds to go with his 26 points in Denver’s 93-80 win over the New Orleans Hornets on Thursday night.

“I was going for 20. That was my goal, to get 20 rebounds tonight. I knew we were going to need it,” Anthony said. “I knew Nene was going to have his hands full with Okafor, and our other bigs … would have their hands full with David West. So, it was a great opportunity for me to go down there and grab some boards.”

“When he’s rebounding like that,” Hornets coach Jeff Bower said, “he’s a handful.”

“It was awesome, man,” Chauncey Billups said. “He has the ability to do that. I’m not saying he’s an 18-rebound-a-night-guy but with his quickness and his explosiveness, most of the time he has an advantage on his defender.”