Jeremy Lin made a cameo appearance in that game, playing 6 minutes, 36 seconds and hitting two free throws. The Celtics won by two points. It was the last time Lin didn't play significant minutes for the Knicks. It was also the last time the Knicks have lost.
The Knicks are 4-0 with Lin as a member of the rotation, even with Jeffries still around, and the second-year guard out of Harvard is averaging 29.7 points and 8.3 assists in three games as a starter. The run of success has everything to do with Lin, but nothing to do with his religious faith or his heart as a winner or the spirit of Tim Tebow, as a few unimaginative souls have suggested.
It also can't be explained away simply by acknowledging that Lin is good — although by shooting 38 points Friday against the Lakers, he's certainly no scrub. If it were that easy, Lin would have cracked the rotation in Oakland or Houston, and never would have been available to the Knicks as a free agent.
Lin's emergence was the perfect melding of a team and a player without any other options, and they just happened to be perfect for each other.
A weird thing happens when Lin gets the ball on the perimeter and a teammate like Tyson Chandler sets a screen. Lin dribbles around the screen and passes to Chandler rolling to the hoop, if the big man is open. If Lin's defender ducks under Chandler's screen, Lin steps back and takes a jumper. If Chandler's defender doesn't step over to help, Lin drives to the hoop. If both defenders cut off the play, Lin passes to a different teammate.
If that simply sounds like running a pick-and-roll, take a lollipop. But it's much different from how the Knicks ran their offense for the first 23 games this season, pre-Lin.
Carmelo Anthony's inability (or unwillingness) to pass the ball except as a last resort is well-documented. Iman Shumpert and Toney Douglas have essentially proven they will never be NBA point guards. Mike Bibby, once an outstanding open-court point guard, is no longer a legitimate NBA player.
It may seem odd to say about a player who has set career highs in scoring in three of the last four games, but Lin is one of the few Knicks who isn't completely wrapped up in generating his own shot, his teammates be damned. One of the more impressive aspects of Lin's run is that he is shooting 57.5 percent from the field. He has always generated most of his shot attempts at the rim, suggesting he is focused at creating quality shots and that his recent high-scoring ways aren't merely one of those hot streaks that guys like Brandon Jennings get on from time to time.
Making the basic pass isn't a unique virtue on many teams. Letting the game come to him didn't work for Lin in Golden State, where he got drowned out by super-aggressive guards Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry.
All this has taken place without Anthony, and with Amare Stoudemire missing three games to deal with the death of his brother. If Anthony and Stoudemire can work within the offense Lin runs, the complexion of the Atlantic Division is completely changed. The Sixers, who have embodied the mantra that "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard," may start to slip if the talent in New York finally begins to play together. The Celtics, who looked capable of limping into the playoffs with a record around .500, may have to fight to stay out of third place in the division.
The challenge is getting the two high-paid stars to defer to the guy living on his brother's couch at NYU (which is the best detail about this whole phenomenon, by the way). Anthony was never willing to take his signals from Andre Miller, Ty Lawson or even Chauncey Billups, so that challenge is immense.
When Anthony does return, though, he will discover that this team isn't like the one he left when he went down with a strained right groin.
"It's a completely different team," Chandler said, according to Yahoo! Sports. "You can't look at this team the same."
Considering the old team was 8-15, the change has been good for the Knicks.
