INQUIRER Sports

DENVER -- Carmelo Anthony, leading the Denver Nuggets with 21.1 points a game, will be sidelined for at least three weeks with a broken right hand, the National Basketball Association club announced on Tuesday.

Anthony suffered the injury on Monday night in a 135-115 home triumph over Indiana.

The playmaker hurt his shooting hand in the third quarter when Pacers center Jeff Foster slapped his hand while going for the basketball.

After the game, the team said that Anthony probably had a broken third metacarpal but the Nuggets waited for Anthony to visit a hand specialist on Tuesday before confirming the fracture.

Anthony, who also averages 7.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists a game, will miss three to four weeks. At the worst, that would put him back in the lineup for a five-game road trip ahead of next month's NBA All-Star Game at Phoenix.

Anthony, who missed three games last month with an elbow bruise, helped the US team capture Olympic gold last August at Beijing. He was a co-captain of the American squad along with fellow NBA stars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.