Jeremy Lin never really cooled down, but it did not matter to the world at large. After he burst onto the scene in early February, leading the Knicks to seven straight wins and appearing in what seemed like every news publication and website, Lin returned from the All-Star break and was forgotten about quickly.
Recently, a few sports radio jokesters facetiously asked, “What ever happened to Jeremy Lin?”
What happened to Lin? All he did was start 14 games for the Knicks after the All-Star break, averaging 14.9 points and 6.7 assists a game. He did not have any more 38-point performances like the one he had against the Lakers, but he continued to score in double figures in 12 of his last 14 games while at least giving a consistent effort to head coach Mike D’Antoni, who has since resigned, and new coach Mike Woodson.
That was why Saturday’s news was potentially so damaging to the Knicks. Lin, who had missed the Knicks’ last three games with what was termed a sore left knee, will miss six weeks with a torn meniscus.
Lin may not be the nightly scoring threat he seemed to be during the wildest bursts of Linsanity, but he was a capable point guard and the Knicks’ best option at the position in their push for a playoff spot.
Lin, Bill Walker and Jared Jeffries, three unheralded players who gave the Knicks immeasurable boosts during their midseason run, are now out for the immediate future as the Knicks finally start to come together under Woodson. Lin’s injury does not just mean the Knicks lost their second-best healthy scorer, behind Carmelo Anthony. It sends ripples down the Knicks’ rotation and could mean huge minutes for undesirable players to play outside their natural positions, as they did before Lin’s arrival.
Baron Davis has been capable enough in a backup role, but with Lin sidelined, the Knicks may have to turn again to Mike Bibby, Iman Shumpert or Landry Field to handle point guard duties. When the Knicks tried that for the first two months of the season, it was about as much fun was watching an episode of “House Hunters.” Knicks games were a series of bricked 3-point shots, out-of-control drives to the hoop and just plain uncomfortable moments by players who weren’t entirely sure what they were supposed to do, and usually did it wrong.
With Lin around, Fields and Shumpert could shift to where they belonged at off-guard and Bibby could shift to where he belonged — on the bench. Lin posed another scoring threat to draw defenders away from Anthony, and while that did not mean Anthony could score more, it did help him score more efficiently.
The Knicks’ vaunted defense, which has been credited with a great deal of their success since D’Antoni’s resignation, will now bear the responsibility of getting the Knicks into the postseason. And why not? The Knicks went through phases of being an AAU team in the first two months, a royal coronation during Linsanity, a car wreck during the final days of D’Antoni’s tenure and a band of defensive titans in the last two weeks.
These Knicks cannot seem to keep the same roster or the same identity for more than a few weeks at a time, so maybe losing their most likeable player came at just the right time for them. It probably was just about time for the Knicks to make another drastic change to keep everybody interested.
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