USA/CAN - Linsanity goes to Toronto

TORONTO (NBA) - When Jeremy Lin runs onto the court for the New York Knicks at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday, nearly three days will have passed since his last appearance in a basketball game.

The question has to be asked, America - how have you coped without a daily dose of Jeremy Lin?

He is a phenomenon, a fairytale, if ever there was one in the NBA.

A 23-year-old, 1.91m guard out of Harvard, Lin has gone from undrafted in 2010 to one of the hottest players in the league.

To the wider basketball community, he has come out of nowhere.

When Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni called Lin’s number and started playing him big minutes in a February 4 game against the New Jersey Nets, Lin responded with 25 points, seven assists and two steals off the bench.

Lin has averaged 26.8 points, eight assists, 4.2 rebounds and two steals, and the Knicks have won all five of those games to improve to 13-15.

The fourth of those triumphs came against the mighty Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night when Lin “out-Kobe’d” Kobe.

Lin had 38 points in Madison Square Garden, the biggest NBA stage of all, against Kobe Bryant, who poured in 34, and the Knicks prevailed in that game, 92-85.

Lin was 13 of 23 from the floor, including two of four from the arc, while Kobe was 11 of 29 overall and just one of five from long range.

Getting everyone involved

Lin's insertion into the line-up has made other players better.

Steve Novak, 28, was averaging 4.1 points in his five-year career but has been used a lot by D’Antoni the last four games.

The coach wants to take advantage of Lin’s ability to penetrate and kick the ball outside, and Novak has capitalized on his increased minutes, making 16 of 31 shots from the arc and scoring 19, 19, nine and 15 points.

Bruce Bowen, an NBA champion in his days with the San Antonio Spurs, is now an analyst with ESPN and he said: “What’s going on with the Knicks right now is that the ball is moving from side to side and there is not a lot of ball-watching on the perimeter.”

“The other guys are getting involved, and because of their involvement, now you just can’t defend by loading up on Carmelo Anthony or Amar'e Stoudemire.

“Now you have Jeremy Lin getting into the paint and he has different things that he can do. He can score or kick it out for a three-point shot.”

Teams that had a chance to sign Lin but passed are now thinking about what might have been.

One of those clubs is the Raptors, the team the Lin will go up against on Tuesday.

What might have been

Toronto president and general manager Bryan Colangelo admits he liked what he saw when observing Lin in a pre-draft workout but didn’t bring him to Canada.

“You have to give Jeremy credit,” Colangelo said in Tuesday’s Toronto Sun.

“If it’s one or two games, you can call him a flash in the pan.

“But the fact it’s gone five games and he’s distributing the ball and he’s scoring 20-plus points, it’s a great story.

“It’s a testament to what kind of young man he is. He has more than a lot of us thought he had.”

The team bosses aren’t the only ones that have had their breath taken away.

The fans have, too.

“I’ve been coming here (Madison Square Garden) since high school in 1955,” said Cal Ramsey, a Knicks supporter, in the New York Times.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, just out of nowhere.”

If Toronto are ruing a missed opportunity, just think how Golden State and Houston feel.

After going undrafted, Lin signed with Golden State for the 2010-11 season but spent a lot of time on the bench, or in the NBDL playing for the Reno Bighorns.

The Los Angeles-born Lin, who is of Taiwanese and Chinese origin, was waived by the Warriors after the NBA Lockout and claimed by the Houston Rockets.

They waived him on December 24, however, to clear salary cap space and sign Samuel Dalembert.

The Knicks then picked up Lin off waivers just a few days later.

Twitter is abuzz before, during and after Lin plays games.

He is Linsational.

The euphoria about his play is called Linsanity.

Melo and Amare

All of this has happened for the Knicks with Stoudemire and Anthony out of action.

Stoudemire has been away grieving over the death of a sibling but has returned to the team while Anthony has been hurt.

"The only positive for us during that whole week was we were watching the basketball games and we were watching Linsanity," Stoudemire said on Monday.

"My family was getting a kick out of it. That's the only smiles they really had all week. It was great to see that. It's been a tough week."

Some fans wonder if the Knicks might be better served not to rock the boat, and keep the same team on the floor that has been so effective of late.

Bowen says that Lin can play well with Stoudemire.

“Now you have a guy (Lin) kind of like Steve Nash who understands the pick-and-roll,” Bowen said.

“We know that Amare Stoudemire flourished under Steve Nash’s tutelage as far as getting him the ball in the right spots.

“I don’t know how Carmelo will handle things when he’s in that situation, but he’s going to have to diversify his game a little bit in order to make things continue to flow.”

D’Antoni believes New York’s’ players now have confidence thanks to Lin’s spark.

"You go into every game thinking you're going to win, and it changes everybody's mood," he said.

Knicks teammate Tyson Chandler agrees.

"It's been unbelievable," he said.

"He's really changed the mindset and mentality of this team."

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