All Jeremy Lin everything—the Knicks PG upstages last night’s eight other games.
by Abe Schwadron | @abe_squad
I know. I had every Lin pun available at my disposal for today’s Post Up title. But I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. I can’t make a joke out of this dude anymore, because he won’t stop being ridiculously good. If he doesn’t somehow make it into the Rookie-Sophomore game (or whatever we’re calling it this year), someone in the NBA offices is effing up. As of last night, you can add “clutch” to his list of quality basketball traits. Let’s get it, with apologies for slightly more brief recaps today—a combination of the fact that JLin will most likely be the only thing discussed, and the fact that the SLAM pick-up run had me behind. You know how it go!
Jeremy. Lin. The ridiculousness continues for the Knicks, who stormed back from a 17-point deficit to beat the Raptors in dramatic fashion. After Lin tied the game at 87 with a minute to go on a three-point play on a drive to the hoop, he held the ball in his hands on the next possession with the clock winding down. With 5 seconds to play, he made his move, taking a dribble at Jose Calderon and pulling up for the game-winning three. It was cold-blooded. It was Hibachi-esque. It was…awesome. The trey with 0.5 seconds on the game clock capped off a 27-point, 11-assist night for Lin, and gave the Knicks their sixth straight win—New York is undefeated in the Lin era. Sure, he had 8 turnovers, and sure, Calderon gave him the business for most of the game until the Knicks switched Iman Shumpert onto him in the second half (Calderon: 25 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds, 3 steals), but you know what? That’ll all be forgotten. JLin led the Knicks back in the fourth quarter, Shumpert locked down Calderon, and New York (14-15) welcomed Amar’e Stoudemire (21 points but shot just 8-22 from the field) back with a W.
LeBron James nearly had a triple-double and the Heat became the first NBA team in 33 years to win three road games on three straight days, riding The King’s 23 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals to victory. By the way, they won all three by double digits. Miami (now 23-7) jumped all over Indiana early, outscoring the Pacers 33-16 in the first quarter and leading 68-39 by halftime. It didn’t help the Pacers’ cause that Danny Granger left in the first quarter with an apparent sprained ankle after contributing just 3 points. Six Indiana players scored in double figures, but a few weren’t who you’d expect: bench men Dahntay Jones (10), AJ Price (12) and Tyler Hansbrough (11) all finished with double-digit games. Dwyane Wade added 16 to help LBJ, Chris Bosh had 13 and 7, and Norris Cole racked up 20 points in extended bench minutes. Good for him.
Tim Duncan had 18 points, 13 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots and Manu Ginobili—who scored only 1 point in 25 minutes—made a big defensive play down the stretch as the Spurs got past the lowly Pistons to improve to 20-9 on the year. Manu drew a charge on Tayshaun Prince in a tie game with just under 1:30 left to play, and Ben Gordon put the game further out of reach for Detroit by getting a technical foul with 21 seconds remaining. It’s the eighth straight victory for San Antonio, which now sits in the No. 2 slot in the West behind only Oklahoma City. The Spurs ruined a big night for Ben Wallace, who played in his 1,055th career game. Why is that significant? Big Ben has now played in more NBA games than any other undrafted player in the history of the League. It might also have been the last time Duncan and Wallace ever face one another, since the two teams aren’t scheduled to play again this season.
At one point, the Bulls led by 19 points in the fourth quarter. Then, all of a sudden it was just a two-point lead. Ugly as it was, the Bulls pulled it out without Derrick Rose yet again, improving to 24-7 and 10-1 at home. Marcus Thornton (23 points) hit a three with under 15 seconds to play to make it 117-115, but Chicago salted the game away with clutch free throw shooting from Luol Deng and Kyle Korver. Deng led the Rose-less Bulls with 23 points, 7 rebounds and a career-high 11 assists and Chicago shot 52 percent as a team. Sacramento got big performances from Thornton, Tyreke Evans (27 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists) and DeMarcus Cousins (28 points, 17 boards), but the Bulls got 22 and 11 from Joakim Noah and 18 points off the bench from Kyle Korver to drop the Kings to 10-18 (3-13 on the road). Chicago got 33 assists even without DRose. Oh, and Sacramento is at New York tonight. Kings guards, meet Mr. Lin.
The Grizzlies are now 2-0 against the Rockets this season after holding Houston to 39 percent shooting and holding Kevin Martin to exactly 0 points on 0-3 shooting in his 18 spare minutes. It’s the first time in his career that KMart has been held scoreless as a starter, and he’s now scored fewer than 10 points in five of his last six games (before that stretch, he was averaging 21 ppg this year). Word to Tony Allen. Oh, and last season Martin averaged more than 31 ppg against the Grizz. Memphis, meanwhile, shot 48 percent last night and found a Big Three of their own, even in the extended absence of Z-Bo. They are Mike Conley (team-high 21 points), Rudy Gay (20 points, 8 rebounds) and Marc Gasol (18 and 7). The Rockets cut the deficit to five in the fourth quarter but Gay canned a trey to put the game out of reach for good. Houston heads home to host OKC tonight, while Memphis is in New Jersey on Wednesday.
The Jazz came in tired (on the third night of a back-to-back-to-back) and the Thunder came in rested (3 days of rest), so this result is really no surprise. And while Kevin Durant got his 21, James Harden scored 22 and Russell Westbrook had 16 points, it was the dominant play on the inside of Serge Ibaka that helped blow Utah out of the building. How about 16 points on 7-8 shooting, 10 rebounds and 6 blocked shots for the Serge Protector? In related news, the Jazz shot just 36 percent to the Thunder’s 55 percent clip, and were outscored in the paint 60-42. Al Jefferson led the team in scoring with 15 points, but no one else on the Jazz did, well, anything. Gordon Hayward, for one, scored zilch on 0-6 shooting in his 16 minutes of action (glad I just picked him up for my fantasy team). But this is no surprise, since the Thunder simply do not lose at home: 10-1 this year in OKC.
Head coach Alvin Gentry held Steve Nash and Grant Hill out of this game for some rest. It’s at that point we probably could have handed Denver the win. The Nuggs snapped a five-game home losing streak behind 20 points from Arron Afflalo, 17 from Ty Lawson and 16 from Chris Andersen, of all guys. Even Kennethe Faried managed to put up 13 and 9. Denver held a 30-point advantage on points in the paint and had six players in double figure scoring. Phoenix’s Michael Redd scored 20 points (3 threes), rookie Markieff Morris led the team in scoring with 21 and Machine Gortat did his double-double thing with 10 and 14, but without Nash the Suns were fighting an uphill battle—they shot 33 percent, their worst in a game since ’06. This block is a nice metaphor for the game as a whole. Whatup, Birdman.
Wizards 124, Trail Blazers 109
Two minutes into this one, Blazers fans everywhere gasped, as LaMarcus Aldridge fell awkwardly, spraining his ankle and forcing him out of the remainder of the game (X-rays were negative, but still). With LMA out of the picture, the Wizards smelled blood, and fed the hottest of hot hands in Nick Young, who finished with 35 points, including 7 three-pointers. If not for Young’s monster night—and a 29-point, 9-assist night from John Wall—the story here would be Nicolas Batum, who dropped a career-high 33 points to lead Portland. Washington scored a season-high 124 points, which was also the most given up this season by the Blazers, and shot a season-high 60 (!) percent from the floor (the team’s highest FG% since 2009). Gerald Wallace had 25 points and Marcus Camby went for 13 and 12, but the Wizards did almost everything right in this game, moving to 7-22 for the season, while the Blazers have now lost 3 of their last 4 at home—that hasn’t happened since 2008.
The Lakers improved to 17-12 on the year thanks to monster games from big men Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, who helped outscore the Hawks 44-28 in points in the paint. Gasol finished with 20 points (7 of them in the final 5+ minutes), 13 rebounds and 4 blocks, while Bynum racked up a 15×15 night. Los Angeles is now 12-2 at home, despite a terrible shooting night from Kobe Bryant, who shot just 5-18 and scored 10 points in his 34 minutes. In the first half, Kobe was 1-10 from the field. No matter, since the Lakers frontcourt was rolling, and since Atlanta shot a season-low 34 percent as a team, including just 7-27 from three-point range. Jeff Teague led ATL with 18 points, while Joe Johnson notched a career milestone with his 15 points—Joe has now scored 10,000 points with the Hawks, just the 7th guy in franchise history to do so.
Line of the Night: Nick Young — 35 points, 12-17 FG, 7-8 3PT. Swaggy P was on fire.
Moment of the Night: Was there ever any doubt? Here’s Lin, from multiple angles and feeds.
Dunks of the Night: Kendrick Perkins leads the break, Russell Westbrook finishes it. And Nicolas Batum baptizes the Wizards’ frontline, all at once.
Tonight: A baker’s dozen more NBA games set to go down on Wednesday, starting with Sixers-Magic at 7 and wrapping up with my Wiz taking on Lob City in the late-night matchup of the evening. In between, be sure to keep an eye (or your jump button) on Thunder-Rockets, Nuggets-Mavs and of course, more Linsanity as the Knicks host the Kings at MSG. Pete will be subbing for me tomorrow morning, since I’m busy covering Nets-Grizz, so don’t miss me too much and be nice to PW. Catch y’all on Friday morning.
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however, he’s also at 63% from mid range right now and that’s not going to stick. he wasn’t a great shooter in college and he’s been a 25% 3-point shooter so far in the nba. i haven’t seen him go left yet and the scouting report is out already. and the elephant in the room… the turnovers (6 a game since he’s startign). they’re not fatigue-induced TOs. his passes are telegraphed and lack “zip”. he also doesn’t have the ball handling skills of a cp3 or nash and people get their hands on the ball when he’s probing the paint. i’m not sure those things change very much once you get to the nba – turnover-prone guards tend to stay that way. now, can he coexist for stat? sure, stat is made for guards like lin. melo? eh. but before shipping melo out, can we at least wait to see what is the actual level of lin? if he turns out to be as good as brandon jennings (who started his nba career with quite a bang and is a fringe all-star this year).. is that good enough to get rid of melo?
Quarter 1: OMG turnovers! Linsanity is ovah
Quarter 2: Go back to Harvard, nerd. You’re done.
Quarter 3: 20 and 10? What a piece of sh*t this guy is.
Quarter 4: Oh jeez…
End of game: WHAT IS LIFE?!
i highly doubt that orlando would be dumb enough to take chandler and anthony for howard, that trade would literally kill the orlando franchise for at least 5 years.
I don’t have League Pass so I didn’t see Lin. All I saw were the highlights and box score.
I did watch the two games on NBATV though, and I’m curious about the Wizards game. I don’t understand why Jordan Crawford was on the ball late in the game instead of Wall. Granted, Crawford is a much better scoring threat off the pick and roll, but he almost never passes. I guess the WIZ figured that since Camby never shows on picks, the guard was going to get open jumpers, so they needed somebody who could stick them and that’s not Wall’s forte. But, it still looked weird to see the franchise future consigned to a corner at the end of the game.
Nick Young. Y’all saw it, and that’s all I need to say.
LeBron killed but I was disappointed with how little he was in the post, at least when I watched. Without Granger, the Pacers had Dahntay Jones on him. He should have been posting him all night, but he was drifting around the perimeter. Blow outs are a perfect time to work on certain aspects of your game, and I was saddened LeBron didn’t take advantage. He apparently thinks posting up is only a sometime thing, when it should be his default position.
That’s all I have.
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Dat, still though, you reall think he is = Rubio?
Randy Wittman and Flip Saunders are not what you need with a young team. They don’t have the strength of personality. The Wizards problem is not blatant stupidity, but a lack of discipline and team oriented sacrifice. They like each other, they support each other and most of htem have legit talent. they just need somebody to harness it, in my opinion.
I mean, why not just let people enjoy dude’s success? Yes, the hype is wild, but hey it can only grate on you if you let it. It’s not like he’s about to win an MVP, you know?
“Love fest,” lol that’s clever.
How long is it going to be before anyone can breakdown the good and bad in Lin’s play without getting hate from all sides? a week, two months, a year, his entire career? Come on son.
@ nbk: Really? Lin is on a much more talented team when Amare and Melo aren’t playing? Steve Novak and Tyson Chandler are All-Stars now?
How about the difference being Lin is better than Flip Murray. Simple answer.
No one’s saying you can’t discuss his game, but it’s annoying when people bring up every single back-up role player (CJ Watson??) when doing so. Have we started comparing Ricky Rubio to CJ Watson and Flip Murray yet?
And there’s validity in being skeptical. 5-6 games, no matter how amazing, is only 5-6 games. I understand trying to remain level headed, and when you see some people going overboard, you try to go overboard the other way.
But when you say things like “the nightmare continues” when a young humble kid has another good game, and in the clutch — one can sort of see why you might be branded a hater, even if you’re not.
Fair enough on similarities in Nash and Lin’s games (even though I don’t see it) but what comparisons are there between him and JKidd, JStockton and Earl Monroe?
Teddy, there was racism in my comment? that’s news to me.
Dude is really compensating for the hype by being irrational in the opposite direction, like tealish said.
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nbk Posted: Feb.15 at 1:22 pm
“What Lin is doing is unheard of because it’s his first real crack at heavy minutes, not because nobody else has ever had a similar stretch of games.” .
Other then that, it’s “very similar”
That’s no knock on Flip Murray but like I said, it’s not an accurate or an astute comparison worth making when Lin is balling out of his mind and winning.
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- Flip was balling out of his mind, and winning. He even hit a GW on his 5th start. And the Sonics started that season 8-2.
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It’s a very very worthy comparison.
And yes SLAM comment boards are completely unregulated whatsoever. lmao. The rules are there for show. Actually I think trolling has gone up since the rules were posted.
Look, I understand. I used to be at this point with Nash when I thought his hype was going to drive me crazy. Same with Dirk because I felt with both players there were ulterior motives. But, I’ve mellowed with age to a degree.
Lin has flaws, and they should be discussed. But, when that’s the gist of your comment after the dude kills like he’s killed and hits a game winner as the cherry, well people are going to be bothered. Plus, people hate discussions that involve race in any shape or form in this country. Hate them with a passion.
I think people are too cool about the turnovers and the fact that his game is currently on the juice thanks to Mike D’s offense. It’s not his fault he plays for the Balco Labs of point guard play, but it is a reality.
But, he is much more aggressive and confident as a shooter/scorer. And Rubio is good on defense. He won’t lockdown everybody, but he makes everybody work which is an underrated skill.
So, to me, Rubio is better.
I’m pretty sure you would call that racist. Now, I’m not stupid enough to believe that a few insensitive remarks = actual institutional racism, but you don’t have to be the KKK or the DEA to make a racist statement.
In the Knicks’ 100-98 win over the Timberwolves on Saturday, Lin shot just 3-of-14 and scored eight points when defended by Rubio. In the second half, Lin was 0-for-7 and scored just one point against Rubio. Against all other defenders, Lin shot 5-of-10 and scored 12 of his 20 points.
But, I agree with you that giving a lukewarm compliment and then making a wildly racially insensitive and inaccurate comment is always going to overshadow your lukewarm compliment. That is common sense.
I don’t think it’s a huge number of people, but whenever anybody actively roots for someone to fail, there is going to be backlash unless you’re rooting against LeBron.
Then you’re golden.
NBA where amazing happen.
another sad loss for my pistons.But congrats to bigben.His defense on timmy kept us in the game.he even nailed a 3pter,only his 7th in career.
big ben you broke my heart when you went to the bulls.i forgave you cos you played really bad for them.
i ll cry when your jersey will be hung in the palace sky.
BBIG BEN WALLLACE GONG!!!!!!!!deetroit basketball
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- Eventually teams figured out how he liked to score and took that away as well.
It’s not that hard to imagine if you think about supporting like 30 people and living reckless.
Also, i don’t if he “couldn’t” or if he “wouldn’t.”
I remember when Birdman defaulted on a couple houses down here and had some other shady financial stuff. People were saying he was broke. Then it came out that dude is worth $100 million. Hell Donald Trump was born rich and had declared bankruptcy three different times and now he’s worth more than a billie.
I still have no idea what the point of bringing him up is. He’s one player out of many, most of them all-time greats, who Lin beat out in total points for his first five starts.
I’m not saying anything about how good I think Lin will be–I’m saying can we stop trying to predict how low his ceiling will be? It’s hilarious that every game he wins comes with an asterisk. That’s just stupid. And I don’t care enough about Flip Murray to be having this debate.
That’s like saying “Hey guys, Tony Delk scored 50 in a game once! That means Brandon Jennings will only be as good as Tony Delk because HE scored 55 points that one time!” Do you seriously think that’s logical? lmao.
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Synergy is a scouting tool. It breaks down EVERYTHING on EVERY play during the NBA season. It’s like nerd heaven.
Because on damn near every sports site, anyone that dares to question dude’s talent/skill is branded a racist/hater. Take Mayweather for example (not that I agree with his comment), dude give Lin his prop by saying he’s a good player but no one mentions that,they all focused in on him saying “the only reason Lin’s getting all the hype is because he’s asian”. I don’t agree with that but everyone branded Mayweather a racist off a simple statement. If that’s all it takes for you to be a racist then what do we call the KKK?
Mayweather is more ignorant than racist.
The question raised was why is Lin so popular when other players have pulled off similar feats and not gotten the same level of attention.
Not who would be better.
The truth is the point is stupid. Lin is more popular than Flip because he’s an Asian, Harvard graduate who plays for a Knicks team that was slumming.
But, Flip wasn’t below the radar. It was a big deal, I remember because one of my homies is from Philly and cool with Flip and he documented like every media mention. So, people were talking about Flip, I remember it. But, not on the same level as this mainly because the media landscape was different, and because Flip’s story wasn’t AS different as Lin’s. The Asian/Harvard hook is a bigger deal. After all, people except that there are random black guys nobody has heard of who can hoop. It’s more surprising when it happens to a random Asian guy who went to an Ivy League school. That’s how the world is.
Broke records.
He did not garner much hype until he hit his prime.
Lin is garnering hype now.
As is such, Mayweather is not totally inaccurate, no?
Right up there with majestic galloping unicorns as one of the funniest comments this season.
Hilarious.
Wallace wasn’t a great player until his 4th season? Would he have been great earlier if given the opportunity, such as Lin received?
Arguable. We shall never know.
Interesting, for Lin wasn’t considered a great player until given a real opportunity, which we are witnessing.
Also, D.Keith Rodman is celebrated as a an all time great defender. As is Russell. As is Bowen. As was Ron Artest. As was Jeffrey Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
Now, not saying that Lin doesn’t deserve the recognition. I think he is very deserving.
I’ll also say this;
Delaney Rudd was an exceptional player. Never saw the light of day in the NBA after Utah.
Sedale Threatt was another one. (Jeremy Lin and Sedale Threatt are comparable to each other, skill set wise…)
Lloyd Daniels.
I do not know.
Maybe you’re right at the end of the day.
Point taken…
And I appreciate your vast knowledge on everything you speak about on these lines. I’ve never seen you mess up, up here. Not once.
We have something in commom when it comes to thse basketball cards.
Shout out to Upper Deck.
Sedale Threatt was a good player. Respectable career. Blossomed with the Lakers when E.J. “The Deejay” retired.
Good scoring point guard. A little streaky on the shot, although he had a decent mid-range game. Good on the passing lanes.
The knock on him was that he would dribble out the shot clock too frequently.
Ended up with some personal issues in the end, but…
He was a good player in his day.
The 166th pick in the draft.
Jeremy Lin Sr.
When talking purely about basketball.
There are worse teams to be affectionate towards.
Like the Timberwolves, or something. lol
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