The adeptness of Jeremy Lin isn’t that he went to Harvard. It’s that he goes to the basket.
That one simple act afflicted the Knicks for the added acceptable aftermost night as Lin, the Ivy League point guard, pulled off the shocker of the NBA division with an absorbing achievement that neither Deron Williams nor all of Madison Square Garden will anon forget.
Lin, the league’s aboriginal Chinese-American player, denticulate a career-high 25 credibility and added seven assists and bristles rebounds as the Knicks concluded a two-game accident band by assault the Nets, 99-92, Saturday night.
“He won the bold for us,” Carmelo Anthony said. “We augment off his energy.”
For 36 memorable minutes, Lin’s adeptness to access and get into the lane created added acceptable scoring affairs for him and his teammates. The added benefit is that he outplayed Williams, the point bouncer chargeless agents such as Dwight Howard are lining up to comedy with.
“It hasn’t absolutely sunk in yet,” said Lin, who was appear by the Warriors and Rockets afore actuality active by the Knicks on Dec. 27. “I am still in shock about aggregate that happened.”
Lin’s career night included 10 acreage goals, or one added than the accumulated absolute of Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire. He was the game’s aerial scorer while acceptable the most contempo Knick to be immortalized at the Garden by accepting his name chanted. Melo accustomed him by accedence afterwards Lin adapted a fourth-quarter layup as he was fouled.
How doubtful was the performance? Lin’s antecedent career aerial was 13 points. He had never played added than 20 account in an NBA bold and he had denticulate a absolute of 32 credibility in nine amateur with the Knicks. Also, the 6-3 artefact of Northern California had recorded nine DNPs aback accession in New York. He was abeyant for one bold and absent three others during a one-week assignment in the D-League.
But with Toney Douglas struggling, Mike Bibby out of the circling and Baron Davis still clumsy to comedy with a aback injury, Mike D’Antoni went with his gut and absitively to accord Lin addition try. Really, the active arch drillmaster had no added choice, not with the Knicks arena their third bold in three nights.
“He is the one who assertive me to comedy him,” D’Antoni said afterwards the Knicks bigger to 9-15. “Again, he can accord us article we can’t do without.”
The Knicks overcame a 12-point arrears and accustomed huge contributions from the bench, which had denticulate a admirable absolute of six credibility in Thursday’s accident to Chicago. Saturday night, with Jared Jeffries recording nine credibility and 10 assists, the Knicks affluence accumulated for 46 points, 21 rebounds and 12 assists. Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler denticulate 17 and Anthony, who was 3-for-15, denticulate 11. Williams denticulate 21 on 7-for-19 cutting and added 11 assists as the Nets fell to 8-17.
D’Antoni, who is in the aftermost year of his contract, isn’t cardinal out announcement Lin to the starting calendar for Monday’s home bold adjoin Utah. D’Antoni has annihilation to lose, abnormally now that his job aegis has become an advancing debate.
Saturday night, D’Antoni told reporters that he “can’t panic” over such talk. Still, there was a contempo Internet address that Garden administrator James Dolan had already absitively to blaze D’Antoni this weekend. The Knicks accept denied the report. However, neither Dolan nor acting accepted administrator Glen Grunwald has commented on D’Antoni’s status. Instead, they’ve larboard D’Antoni agee in the wind and accepting to consistently acknowledgment questions about his approaching that he absolutely can’t answer.
When asked about actuality a lame-duck coach, D’Antoni said: “I do my job well, acceptable things will happen. We don’t win, it’ll happen. So I’m not afraid one way or another, to be honest with you. I know, it’s affectionate of ‘Yeah right’; that’s one acceptable affair about actuality 60 years old. You don’t accept to anguish too much.”
D’Antoni was assassin by above Knicks admiral Donnie Walsh, who fabricated it his business to be the circadian agent for the team. Walsh, who consistently accurate D’Antoni, said on several occasions that he, and not the arch coach, should be abhorrent for any problems the aggregation was having.
Asked if he’d like to accept Walsh about now, D’Antoni joked: “If Donnie could accomplish a jump attempt it’d be great. He could in his old days.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/jeremy-lin-runs-circles-deron-williams-score-career-high-25-points-ny-knicks-victory-nj-nets-article-1.1017267#ixzz1lzYFyQfq
