New York ? It was late in the fourth quarter. The New York Knicks were losing badly. The Madison Square Garden crowd was cheering for the Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony.

So by the time Denver’s J.R. Smith went in on another fast break Saturday, the Knicks had had enough.

Mardy Collins figured he’d put a stop to the fun with a hard foul. Instead, it was the start of a wild brawl – the last thing the NBA needed two years after its last melee, and the last thing the Knicks need in a season already spiraling downward.

The fight went from one end of the court to the other. Carmelo Anthony dropped Collins with a punch, Smith and Nate Robinson went flying into the stands while fighting, and six other players were ejected.

Anthony, the NBA’s leading scorer, apologized Sunday, but he could be looking at a suspension of more than five games. The NBA was reviewing the incident and interviewing people involve, and it could announce penalties before both teams play tonight.

What caused the meltdown? It seems to come down to this: The Knicks felt dissed.

“The score period, and the guys that they had in,” Robinson said after the game. The Knicks (9-17) didn’t practice Sunday and weren’t commenting further.

Anthony, Camby, Smith and fellow starter Andre Miller were all still on the floor with Denver leading by 19 points with 1:15 to play when Collins prevented Smith from another easy basket by grabbing him by the neck and taking him to the floor.

Smith rose and immediately started jawing with Collins, and Robinson jumped in to pull Smith away. Anthony shoved Robinson away, and Robinson and Smith then tumbled into the front row while fighting.

The New York Knicks' Nate Robinson, second from left, and Denver's J.R. Smith, right exchange words while teammate Carmelo Anthony (15) looks on. The players brawled, and all 10 on the court at the time were ejected Saturday at Madison Square Garden. They could learn their punishment today.

Just as things appeared to be calming down, Anthony threw a hard punch that floored Collins, and New York’s Jared Jeffries sprinted from the baseline toward halfcourt in an effort to get at Anthony, but was tackled by a Denver player.

By the time security had finally contained Smith, they were nearly at the opposite end of the court from where the altercation started, making it the NBA’s scariest scene since the brawl at Auburn Hills, Mich., between Pacers players and Pistons fans two years ago.

“Without being there, I can tell you the power of emotions can be an underrated thing in our game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

Anthony said Sunday he was sorry his emotions got the best of him.

“Last night’s altercation with the Knicks escalated further than it should have. I take full responsibility for my actions in the matter,” Anthony said in a statement. He apologized to fans, the Nuggets, the NBA, his own family – and to Collins and his family.

“My actions were inexcusable, and I am sorry for making this an even more embarrassing situation,” Anthony said.

Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, who took over for Larry Brown after one season, said he told Anthony that he and Camby shouldn’t have been in the game after it was decided.

A source in the league, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation into the brawl, said that Thomas also advised Anthony not to go near the basket shortly before the hard foul occurred.

Nuggets coach George Karl had just dispatched three players to the scorer’s table to check in while the Knicks brought the ball up the floor.

But before play stopped so they could check in, New York turned it over, starting Smith’s fast break.

Two minutes earlier, Smith had thrown down a reverse dunk on the break, as both he and Anthony seemed trying to impress their group of fans. Smith is from New Jersey, and Anthony, who scored 23 points in the second half, is a New York native.

The Knicks weren’t enjoying the show.

Robinson said the Knicks were “just trying to fight, come back from the deficit, and they got their star players still in. It’s a slap in the face to us as a franchise.”

One of many this year.

It’s been a miserable season for the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, where they have been routinely booed while compiling a 4-10 record. And they were in the midst of their second straight beating – Collins, in fact, committed a flagrant foul at the tail end of a 112-96 loss at Indiana on Friday night. The final score on Saturday was 123-100, Nuggets.

The NBA has taken numerous steps to clean up its image after the fiasco in Detroit, implementing a dress code and its community relations initiative NBA Cares last season, and trying to eliminate excessive complaints to officials this season.