New York Knicks beat New Jersey Nets 99 – 92; Jeremy Lin the surprise star – NBA Recap
The New York Knicks snapped a two game losing streak with a win over rivals New Jersey Nets when the teams met on Saturday. The game at the Madison Square Garden swayed back and forth before the home side finally got the win and they had a new star to thank
for it; Jeremy Lin.
The backup point guard out of Harvard was pretty much an unknown entity before the game, not anymore. Lin scored a career high 25 points, also the highest tally of any player on the night. As if that wasn’t enough, Lin put the icing on the cake with 7 assists
and 5 rebounds.
His performance, which came at a time when the Knicks seemed desperate for a new saviour, delighted the home crowd and New York’s head coach, Mike D’Antoni.
"We've seen bits and pieces and sometimes, I thought he was trying to do a little too much. We told him to do what he does, but don't try to do everything. The biggest thing is he has a point guard's mentality." D’Antoni said, hinting that Lin could have
a larger role to play in New York’s plans from now on.
Lin himself was delighted with how things turned out on the night and didn’t really know what to make of it soon after the game.
"This night, it hasn't really sunk in yet to be honest. I'm still kind of in shock about everything that happened. I'm just trying to soak it all in."
Tyson Chandler scored 17 points and had 9 rebounds but the big guns of New York weren’t firing. Amar’e Stoudemire didn’t scored 17 points but got into foul trouble and only had around 25 minutes on the floor. Carmelo Anthony’s struggles continued as he went
3-of-15 from the field, scoring only 11 points.
The Nets were pretty pleased with their efforts to contain the two stars from New York, but were undone by the display of Lin, something their coach admitted after the game.
"If you would have told me Melo would go 3 for 15 and Amare would get in foul trouble, I'd think, `Man, we'd win by double figures,"' Nets coach Avery Johnson said. "But when you have a guy coming off your bench like that and getting 25 points, it's pretty
deflating."
The Nets seemed stronger in the start as they took the first quarter handsomely, up 30 – 20 by the end. The second saw a fight back from the Knicks, who piled on 26 points and held New Jersey to just 18.
At halftime though the Nets were still ahead, and things didn’t change after the interval either. A competitive third period saw both sides scoring 24 points and the status quo was preserved going into the final period.
Things though changed drastically after that as the Knicks, helped on by an expectant crowd, made charge after charge to usurp the lead. Their moment came with a 9 – 2 run that put them ahead by 7 points with 3:50 remaining. The Nets never were able to make
a comeback and saw the game peter out at 99 – 92.
The Nets had Deron Williams firing with 21 points and 11 assists while Kris Humphries scored 20 and grabbed 12 boards. Jordan Farmar came off the bench to make a mark with 19 points.
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