[Sly Fox]

All of the attention certainly didn't rattle Lin-sanity to start this evening's game. I had an interesting conversation with Mrs. Sly explaining the craziness of the situation. Last I heard, the kid is still sleeping on his brother's couch in Manhattan.

[TDDance234]

It's been a lot of fun watching this kid play tonight. He's having the time of his life.

[NotAJerry]

38 points against the best defense he's seen so far. I don't know how long this is going to last, but it should be a fun little bit of the NBA season.

[lynchburgwildcats]

Impressive performance from Lin. Lakers did a good job keeping him out of the paint for 1.5 quarters, but eventually Lin started abusing the slow footed Fisher and Blake as he should have. Tonight was one of the most claring examples of why the Lakers are desperate to trade for a PG. When the Lakers were on offense, they were playing 4 on 5 because Lin didnt have to guard the PG.

Lin finally started making some shots outside the paint, he'd struggled his entire NBA career on shots outside of 5 feet (he had basically lived in the paint since the explosion started), so I'm more inclined to say that the outside shooting was more of a fluke until he consistently makes those shots. Not saying he can't, but it will take more than one good shooting performance before I am convinced he is going to be a good shooter.

About the only thing he didn't do well on offense is when he was forced to give up the ball in the paint. He made several poor decisions and several times had to go with a jump pass because he would jump in the air before he knew what he was going to be passing it. Other than that it was a fairly outstanding offensive show.

Would like to see him play in a game where he is forced to have to play defense rather than roam around the court. Didn't see the games, but by all second hand accounts he had difficulties with Deron Williams and John Wall. So I want to see him have to D up a legitimate PG so I can see for myself if he got abused or if the stats were just misleading. Likewise, I'd also like to see how well he does when matched up against an elite defensive PG like a Paul, Rose, Westbrook, etc. Obviously he won't just get shut down, but it would be interesting to see just how well he does.

Right now he actually reminds me a lot of Russell Westbrook. Not as good as Westbrook by any means, but his skill set and style of play reminds me of him. Very good scorer that is miles ahead as a slasher than shooter, prone to turnover the ball a lot due to some poor decision making and getting out of control when driving to the rim (had 6 TOs today, had another game with 8), and a quality passer that makes his teammates better. However he isn't as long or as good of an athlete as Westbrook and isn't the defender that Westbrook is. Westbrook is known more for his offense and for good reason, but he is actually a very good defender as well. Likely will never be as good of a defender as Westbrook given his physical limitations. Of course, as long as he is coached by D'antoni, he won't learn how to play defense anyways.

[pbow]

I was lucky enough to be in the Garden tonight...I'm sure it came across on tv, but the atmosphere was just insane. It was as good as I've seen in the garden...better than NBA & NHL playoff games and on par with BE championship basketball.

I was shocked at how quick Lin was. He plays with so much confidence and his teammates have so much confidence in him...it was amazing to see.

[Purple Haize]

The Taiwanese JJ Berea?

[lynchburgwildcats]

Linsanity came back down to earth a bit today. Shot just 8-24 and showed his turnover propensity again with 6 turnovers, now averaging 4.6 per game in the last five games.

His struggles from outside of five feet came back after having a good shooting night last night, went just 3-10 on such shots including 0-3 from three. If he can consistently make jumpers outside of five feet, he will be unguardable.

He is scoring fairly easily thus far, but I'm not sure how much other teams and players have been able to scout him and devise ways to slow him down. Once teams have him scouted out well, he'll have to knock down those shots to be a consistently good scorer. He's got a good stroke, a bit slow but has good form, so it should come in time and he'll likely be streaky all season if the current five-game sample size is indicative of the entire season. Or maybe he is just having a cold start on the jumper, we won't know that for 100% sure until we get a larger sample size.

He did make a clutch free throw that proved to be the winning point, however. That's a great sign when you can still provide winning plays while struggling offensively, that's the kind of stuff that separates the great players from the good players.

I'm really interested to see how well he does when Carmelo comes back. He and Amare will complement each other very well, especially on the pick and role and with how well Amare can run the court. The key to the cog is how Carmelo will fit in though. They are winning games without him on the court - and Amare, but like I said I see him fitting back in much better - so Carmelo is going to have to fit back in to what is winning games, now what has been losing games. Of course, with Melo and Amare's refusal to play defense, even if they do fit in well, the Knicks still might start losing games again because they won't stop a soul.

[thepostman]

The Knicks are going to realize more and more that getting Carmelo was a big mistake. He won't coexist well with Lin and ultimately that will hurt the Knicks and Lin. I hate the Knicks and am glad their Carmelo gamble isn't paying off, its just too bad it will end up effecting others like Lin.

His inexperience is obvious, but I think he will have sustained success in this league. I think 18, 8 and 4 is the kind of player he will be statistically. Assist amount may go up if he is given the chance to really succeed with amare on the floor and Carmelo isn't dominating the ball, but I doubt that happens

[lynchburgwildcats]

The Knicks are going to realize more and more that getting Carmelo was a big mistake. He won't coexist well with Lin and ultimately that will hurt the Knicks and Lin. I hate the Knicks and am glad their Carmelo gamble isn't paying off, its just too bad it will end up effecting others like Lin.

His inexperience is obvious, but I think he will have sustained success in this league. I think 18, 8 and 4 is the kind of player he will be statistically. Assist amount may go up if he is given the chance to really succeed with amare on the floor and Carmelo isn't dominating the ball, but I doubt that happens

I didn't really pay attention to this, but apparently in the Friday night game, Melo wasn't looking very happy on the bench when Lin did something awesome while the rest of the bench was all excited and jumping up and down and stuff. Could be reading in to it entirely too much, but what kind of "teammate" isn't happy when his teammates are doing well, especially a guy that has been doubted his entire hoops career?

The Knicks gave up way too much to get Carmelo to begin with. The Knicks gave up two legitimate NBA starting small forwards in Gallo (who isn't too far off from being as good as Carmelo, by the way) and Wilson Chandler, a legitimate NBA starting point guard in Felton, a decent young backup center with potential in Mozgov, three draft picks (one first, two seconds), and $3 million. All they got in return was Carmelo, Billups (who they got rid of to get Chandler), and a bunch of nobodies or guys not even on the team now. It was an awful deal then and it's even more glaringly awful with what has happened in less than a year since the deal went down.

[TDDance234]

Melo was in to the game and jumping around just as the rest of his team. Non-story.

[thepostman]

Melo was in to the game and jumping around just as the rest of his team. Non-story.

yeah I went back and looked at the game on league pass just to see and you're right.

It will be interesting to see how carmelo will adjust and if he will be willing to play at least a little more off the ball when he comes back

[bballfan84]

Melo was in to the game and jumping around just as the rest of his team. Non-story.

yeah I went back and looked at the game on league pass just to see and you're right.

It will be interesting to see how carmelo will adjust and if he will be willing to play at least a little more off the ball when he comes back

Heard on the radio this morning Melo was the one in D'antoni's ear telling him to give Lin a chance

[From the class of 09]

Lin wins again. 27pts 11dimes.

[Sly Fox]

It finally is beginning to look like Lin is enjoying this himself. That shot tonight was beast.

[thepostman]

This is just an amazing story all around. You keep thinking he simply can not sustain this level of play because this is the nba teams will catch on and coaches will adjust. They haven't yet. Now if he cuts his turnovers in half that would be icing on the cake for him, but holy crap I bet a lot of teams are kicking themselves right now

[Purple Haize]

I wouldn't be too concerned about the turnovers, although fewer is always better! The tempo that Dantonio wants to run will inherently have a higher number of turnovers as opposed to a 'traditional' offense. Plus it takes time to figure out the right pass at the right time at that tempo.

[thepostman]

I wouldn't be too concerned about the turnovers, although fewer is always better! The tempo that Dantonio wants to run will inherently have a higher number of turnovers as opposed to a 'traditional' offense. Plus it takes time to figure out the right pass at the right time at that tempo.

Agreed, it is especially tough for someone with limited NBA experience. I think that will come in time.

I really expected him to fade but there is really no sign of that happening. Of course Melo will probably ruin everything unless he truly means what he says about playing off the ball. I will believe that when I see it!

[lynchburgwildcats]

This is just an amazing story all around. You keep thinking he simply can not sustain this level of play because this is the nba teams will catch on and coaches will adjust. They haven't yet. Now if he cuts his turnovers in half that would be icing on the cake for him, but holy crap I bet a lot of teams are kicking themselves right now

It's hard to justify kicking oneself over this when he had thrown away every other opportunity he was given in the NBA by not producing when put in to the game. Heck, he dang near threw away this one too, the Knicks were planning on cutting him after he had done next to nothing in his nine previous games with them.

[lynchburgwildcats]

I wouldn't be too concerned about the turnovers, although fewer is always better! The tempo that Dantonio wants to run will inherently have a higher number of turnovers as opposed to a 'traditional' offense. Plus it takes time to figure out the right pass at the right time at that tempo.

Agreed, it is especially tough for someone with limited NBA experience. I think that will come in time.

I really expected him to fade but there is really no sign of that happening. Of course Melo will probably ruin everything unless he truly means what he says about playing off the ball. I will believe that when I see it!

It's also only been six games, that's an extremely small sample size, not even 10% of an entire 66 or 82 game NBA season. Freaking Nikola Pecovic has had a string of 12 good games in a row and has the 7th best PER among all centers, just a measly .08 points worse than Andrew Bynum. Why isn't the NBA stratosphere anointing him the next big thing for NBA centers?

He doesn't just turnover the ball a lot because of the system, he just turns over the ball a lot in general. He has a 14.1 turnover ratio, that means 14.1% of his possession end in turnovers. That's 48th (out of 62) in the NBA among all qualified PGs. Of course, one can succeed with such an awful rate, Westbrook checks in at 14.0, Nash at 14.2, and Rondo at 14.3. Last year he had a 12.6 ratio, that's obviously better but still considered fairly high - it would rank him 34th among qualified PGs this year.

He'll fade eventually. He's got the 7th best PER in the league. Does anyone truly believe right now he is a top 10 NBA player? Besides, he has already shown signs of fading. He only shot 8-24 against the TWolves and was bottled up on the pick and roll in that game. Last night he was subpar for three quarters and could not defend Jose Calderon whatsoever as Iman Shumpert had to check him in the 4th. Lin's defense enabled Calderon to shoot 11-15 with two TOs through three quarters, once Shumpert checked him, Calderon went 0-2 with two turnovers. It was only his second 20+ point outing of the season, in the previous game Calderon ran Derek Fisher and Steve Blake through the wood chipper for a season-high 30 points.

[From the class of 09]

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[lynchburgwildcats]

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Nice shot, bad defense too though. Sure Calderon contested it well, but everything he did (or didn't do I should say) before that was poor. It was blatantly obvious Lin was going to shoot a jumper as soon as he put the ball on the floor, why back off of him so much? It's not like he was going to have the time to get to the rim after his 4th dribble.

Even if it didn't look like he was going to take a jumper, got to get on him to deny the jumper and force him to put the ball on the floor to make a play. Either he gets to the rim and scores (or gets fouled, either way its an L, which is what they got anyways!), he gets forced into a lower percentage shot when help defenders come over (which is much better than letting a guy dribble into a rhythm three. If he makes a lower percentage jumper, then so be it, can't stop every shot), or he is forced to have to make a pass (which given his poor decision making at times, a turnover is certainly within reason). Either way, I'd rather have all of that happen than letting a guy dribble into a rhythm three!!

[RubberMallet]

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Nice shot, bad defense too though. Sure Calderon contested it well, but everything he did (or didn't do I should say) before that was poor. It was blatantly obvious Lin was going to shoot a jumper as soon as he put the ball on the floor, why back off of him so much? It's not like he was going to have the time to get to the rim after his 4th dribble.

it was blatantly obvious he was going to shoot the three a few plays earlier, but he didn't. why would it be obvious when the game was tied and a 2 would win it. shooting a 3 ball to win it during a tie ball game is ncaa sillyness. it only takes a sec or so to get to the rim for an nba'er. if he didn't make that shot, everyone would be like "rookie mistake, you have to drive or create a shot for someone else". he buried it. i'd rather have a guy take a 35% chance shot than posterize me with a drive to the lane for a 50%'er.

[From the class of 09]

Yeah I heard from a guy that all Lin can do is drive too. So if I was a defender I'd sag a little and let Lin try and hit a fluke shot from outside of 5 feet.

[bradyfan]

Sigh, I was looking forward to the NBA because I wasn't expecting another average athlete getting a ton of hype. He's only played SEVEN games. Why are people calling him great? Why has ESPN jumped all over this kid like he's the Dos Equis guy with a uniform? Not to say that it isn't exciting to watch a kid with his background light it up for a few games, however, don't buy this kid's stock yet.

Additionally, one common factor among most of these seven opponents...they're terrible.

Houston - 16-13 (This is the only legitimate opponent imo)
NJ - 8-21
Utah - 14-14
Washington - 7-22
Lakers - 17-12 (I'm a Lakers fan and I'll tell you right now, most overrated team in the league.)
Minnesota - 13-16
Toronto - 9-21

Another thing that you should know is that D'Antoni's PG's always play better than they really are. It really doesn't surprise me that Lin is having some success while the star players have been out.

To sum up my feelings on this, I don't know that Lin will be a bad PG or a good one. I just am not ready to make a call yet. He's played six games and none of them have been against impressive teams. Normally, I wouldn't even care about this kind of stuff but Lin's hype is very comparable to Tebow's, and it annoys me that so many people can be sold on the moment.

[RubberMallet]

um. find one person that thinks this kid is a hall of famer. the only one taking all this too seriously, seemingly, is you.

is it not a story that a kid who was almost cut, wasn't drafted, and isn't black is playing so well completely out of nowhere? the east is 90% awful, everyone is playing bad teams nightly. who cares? obviously tmzspn is going to go bonkers.

its once again all about the $$$. yao brought millions and millions of dollars in revenue to the nba. the nba has been looking for a feel good story to help gain viewers back from embarassing union issues and a general disinterest in the nba over the past few years. this is doing it.