The 34 points he poured in during the Nuggets’ 93-86 win over the Hawke’s Bay Hawks in Napier late last month were the most scored by a player anywhere on the globe — well, according to a popular social media account that tracks these sort of things.
"Yeah, that’s a fun fact. In the whole world — it’s crazy," Carey responded when asked about it.
The 25-year-old American hails from Upper Marlboro, in Maryland.
He bounced around colleges but spent his final year with the Maryland Terrapins, where he averaged 7.2 points.
Following college, he had a couple of seasons with the Maine Celtics in the NBA G League.
The shooting guard has made a decent impact in his first three games for the Nuggets.
He struggled a little in his debut but still managed to bank 23 points in a losing effort against the Tauranga Whai.
He helped the Nuggets to their first win this season with his 34-point haul and came alive late in the 108-104 win over the Manawatū Jets in Dunedin on Thursday night.
He made a driving lay-up to give the Nuggets the lead with 47 seconds remaining and drained two free throws to seal the victory with time almost up.
Patrick Freeman and Matthew Bardsley made some key plays during the final stretch as well.
But Carey’s performance was notable for its tenacity.
He had been struggling. The shots were not dropping for him but he found a way to contribute.
"I just had to focus on other ways to impact the game, whether that was on defence, rebounding or empowering my team-mates to be aggressive and make shots."
Carey made 12 assists in the game and still had the confidence to take the ball to the hoop.
That confidence comes from the hours he puts in. Carey is demanding on himself in training.
He has to make a certain amount of shots and keeps going until he gets there. That kind of persistence paid off on Thursday night.
This is Carey’s first overseas professional gig, and he is still adjusting to the league.
"I found myself in a really good town. Dunedin is, like, a very close-knit, small community. And it’s a good basketball town, too.
"My team-mates are some of the best guys that I’ve played with.
"I definitely like the league. It’s competitive.
"The imports are very talented. And not just the imports, even the coaching. Teams are well-coached.
"But I’m still adjusting a little bit as I get to play everybody and see the different schemes of teams and philosophies and things like that."
He will have to continue tweaking his game.
Nuggets power forward Todd Withers has returned to Australia to play in the ANBL 1.
His replacement, American Jaylen Sebree, arrived in Auckland earlier this week and is expected to be ready to play in the game against the Indian Panthers tonight.
The Panthers are 0-4 and struggling in their debut season. They have conceded more than 100 points in all four games.
The Nuggets (2-2) have rebounded from a slow start to post back-to-back wins.
But defensively they have been off the pace, and that remains a focus for coach Mike Kelly.
"I didn’t think our defence was great over the four quarters [against the Jets] but we stepped up and made some plays late for each other," Kelly said.
"That was really encouraging but I think we can improve a lot on what we did defensively — and we have to, I think, to win big games."
