In 2010, I posted 3 times about Jeremy Lin - his NBA debut, his first points and non-garbage NBA minutes, and the moment he became the best Asian-American to ever play in the NBA (career-high 13 points).
Those milestones may be most significant only to the player himself, but this week, Jeremy has become the top story in the NBA. In fact, you could argue that post-Superbowl, he is the biggest story in all of American sports. After his first extraordinary performance on Sat, I didn't get around to posting on SB Sunday. Then he set his career-high on Monday on his first start and set another mark with his first double-double last night. Once he's lucky, twice he's good, thrice he's a legit NBA starter.
Jeremy played a team high 36 minutes off the bench, scored 25 points on a team-high 19 attempts (10 made), had a team-high 7 assists, grabbed 5 rebounds, and 2 steals. I'm not sure what's more impressive: that he only committed 1 turnover or that he outplayed perennial All-star Deron Williams down the stretch for the win. Significantly, Carmelo and Stoudemire both played big minutes as well but there was room for Jeremy to do his thing.
In his first career start, Jeremy logged an incredible 45 minutes and scored a career-high 28 points on 10-17 shooting. On a night when Carmelo was lost to injury early on, Jeremy picked up the slack and lead the Knicks to a win over a Jazz team with a winning record. He also had 8 assists but fatigue clearly caused his 8 2nd half turnovers. Coach D'Antoni joked that he was riding Lin like "freakin' Secretariat". Also memorable was that the rabid Knicks fans were chanting M-V-P for Lin after the game.
Feb 8 - 107-93 vs Wizards
Jeremy had his first double-double on his 2nd start, finishing with 23 points and 10 assists. He shot well, 9-14, grabbed 4 rebounds and only had 2 turnovers. Reminiscent of summer league play in 2010, he was matched up once again with John Wall and more than held his own, as evidenced by his late 3rd quarter crossover and throwdown (apparently his first NBA dunk). This was the 2nd win that Jeremy lead his team to without Carmelo or Stoudemire. Good thing too, since his 780k contract wasn't guaranteed until this last waiver day had passed. It was big news that he's been sleeping on his older brother's couch in Manhattan.
- The Knicks had been 2-11 in their last 13 games before these 3 games and this 3 game streak is the longest they've had this season since early January.
- In his first 9 games this season, he totaled 32 points. In 29 games last season, he had 76 points, which is the same total he's put up in just these 3 games.
Can he keep it up? Hopefully against the Lakers on Friday, he will.
No comments:
Post a Comment