Jeremy Lin at the double as New York Knicks romp past Sacramento Kings 100 – 85 – NBA Recap
The New York Knicks continued their fine run on Wednesday with yet another victory, this time over the Sacramento Kings. The Knicks put on a show for the crowd at the Madison Square Garden as Sacramento Kings never threatened, bowing out 100 – 85.
Jeremy Lin was once again at the centre of everything New York did on the night. The new born super star decided to play the role of facilitator in the game, showing off his playmaking skills to end up with 13 assists while he also had 10 points.
"[I'm] really happy with 10 points and 13 assists. That's great on a night like this, that's great. Next game Jeremy could have 30 points. Whatever we need him to do, I think he can do." Mike D’Antoni, New York’s head coach, enthused after the game.
He only put Lin out on the court for around 26 minutes, giving him some much needed rest after his mammoth displays in the last few games.
Linsanity though seems to have rubbed off on his teammates as well now, as almost everyone on the court contributed for the Knicks. Landry Fields, Lin’s partner in the backcourt, had a double-double of his own with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Bill Walker had 14 points, Amar’e Stoudemire netted 11 while Jared Jeffries, Steve Novak and Iman Shumpert all hit the double figure mark off the bench.
The Kings however did not have a night to remember. Tyreke Evans scored a game high 19 points, but they weren’t of much use to Sacramento. Neither were the 15 scored by DeMarcus Cousins or the 13 by Marcus Thornton. The Kings, at times looked to be on the court just to make up the numbers.
The tone was set in the first quarter. The score was 7 – 7 after some early exchanges when the Knicks fuelled a 10 – 0 burst to get a double digit lead. The best Sacramento could do was get a few buckets of their own, finishing the period behind at 25 – 17.
The hits just kept on coming though. New York had an 11 – 2 burst early in the 2nd quarter that put them in the clear. Sacramento were only playing catch up the whole segment and went into the halftime break trailing at 54 – 36.
Nothing changed after the interval. The Knicks bombarded Sacramento right at the start of the 3rd period with an 11 – 4 run, taking the score to 65 - 40. The gap between Kings and New York was over 20 points throughout the segment and the game looked finished before the final quarter had begun.
Sacramento used the last stanza to bring some much needed respectability to the score line. The Knicks just gave the reserves some court time and went through the motions. The emphatic victory finally secured at 100 – 85.
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