Carmelo Anthony was forced to leave the New York Knicks' game against the Milwaukee Bucks early after aggravating a knee injury.

The forward has been playing with soreness in his left knee, and the problem worsened when he hit the floor while trying to gather a loose ball in the third quarter of the 117-113 defeat.

After the game, Anthony told reporters: "The tape job that I had kind of got wet a little bit. I started feeling it a little bit after that. We cut the tape off on the bench, and I just started feeling a little bit more pain. It felt better once I got it retaped.

"It's been sore since maybe the Cleveland game. I've had some tests. I really don't know exactly what's going on with it, I mean, I know what's going on with it. But like I said, for me it's just a matter of just not kind of thinking about and playing through it."

Anthony led the team with 26 points during Tuesday night's loss.