Why is it that when we cut a player 1. we all like from the Rockets 2. He turns out to do awesome 3. he goes to the Knicks? Of all teams the Knicks? I am happy for Lin but WTF this could not have gone worse.
I can't kill Lin over 1 bad half. Even Lowry has had awful halves. Hell, Kevin Martin has had at least 1 bad half in his last 235 games (look it up).
This, BTW, is the classic "Tebow" game. Struggling leading up to the final minute, then assisted on the Novak 3 and drew the foul and hit what turns out to be the game-winning FT.
That didn't make any sense to me. Is there an explanation for why the Knicks lost a possession due to a technical on the other team?
Its like that game against Chicago. Major screw up by Barber (like Rubio's last possession) and somehow gets the win.
Ok, now the Tebow comparisons can start. That was a bad half, I don't think his body can handle the minutes and schedule. I'm willing to bet he's finally going to have a team of trainers dedicated to shaping his body this summer.
As he should. But, honestly, I don't see the hoopla over one bad half when he played 4 games in 5 nights. Not many players can play at their peak level after that many minutes in such a short time span.
I'm not trying to make excuses but this is his 5th start ever. 2nd game of a back to back, 4th game in 5 nights and still puts up 20 pts, 8 ast, 6 reb, 3 stl, 6 to...33% FG Russell Westbrook-ish line even including the inefficiency and turnovers
Lin's a guy that needs the ball in his hands and I think he looks to score more than create. He took 24 shots tonight but once Melo and then Amare comes back, that shot total will take a major hit as will his ability to control the ball. Lin-sanity will start to fizzle. He's still a good player but his numbers won't be herculean.
I would say that Lin's game tonight was somewhat Tebowish, since he had a poor personal performance while his team stole the game with defense and the contributions of others. However, Lin's previous few performances were genuinely superstar caliber, while this sort of game is typical for Tebow. Lin was exhausted in the second half. If there's a silver lining though, this game at least supported the claim that he has talent. Jeremy played an excellent first half. And even though he missed a ton of easy shots in the second half, he was still driving into the paint at will. Layups are regarded as easy shots for a reason; if anything was anomalous tonight it was Jeremy missing so many of them. And while he did miss one clutch time free throw, Jeremy sank the second one that put the Knicks ahead for good. The fact that he was able to drive it in and draw that crucial foul at all was great though. He also assisted Novak's game-tying three a bit earlier. Now I'm a stat-minded guy, so I won't make the argument that a couple last minute plays make up for a poor performance. But I'm also a fan, and on a night like this you take what you can get.
T-wolves had Love and that goonies loooking MOFO cleaning up the glass and yet Lin and a bunch of bench players without Amar and Carmelo with Lin having an off night still pull out a win??
I would say Jeremy's biggest weakness as a player right now is his propensity for turnovers. The good thing is that it's a very correctable weakness. These last two games, Jeremy has thrown the ball away several times while attempting tough passes in traffic, off of the pick-and-roll. He's unselfish to a fault. If he's already in the paint, he should just toss the ball up for the "easy" shot or possible drawn foul. Most PGs don't pass the ball back to the rolling big man enough. I was always infuriated at the Rockets guards for not giving it back to Yao, after seeing Yao devastate the Mavs in the 2005 playoffs with that maneuver. But Jeremy veers too far to the other extreme, trying to find his rolling teammate even if they're not really open. It's good that the star PG wants to create, but he just needs to avoid those passes when the lane is that crowded.
Good comeback by the bench players of Newark but obviously Kevin Love, Rubio, Pek and their talents gave it away.
espn just said lin has scored more points in his first 4 starts than anybody since the merger. the merger!! how do you go to harvard, not get drafted, get cut twice, and then score more in your first 4 starts than every superstar since the merger?! just to screw up our knicks' draft pick?
By the way, I've rarely bothered watching the T-Wolves play these last couple of years. WTF is with Love's game? The guy just puts it into the hoop so easily, with zero effort. One of the quietist 30 pt games I've seen in a long time. The guy didn't even need to create or try hard to get open. He just camped at the 3pt line and received passes off of Rubio for the 3. Love barely touches the ball before he puts it in. Which is not a knock on his skills at all, if anything that's efficient. But after watching the Rockets struggle so hard to get Yao the ball, or Kobe throwing up so many contested jumpers with people all over him, it's really surprising how easily Love scores.
