Kings unable to corral Lin
Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks drives against Tyreke Evans of the Sacramento Kings. (Feb. 15, 2012) Credit: Jim McIsaac
The "Defensive Keys" section on the whiteboard in the Sacramento Kings' locker room before Wednesday night's game with the Knicks included the following reminders:
Keep Lin left
Protect the paint
So on the first play of the game, Jeremy Lin drove right, hit a layup and was fouled for a three-point play.
On the final play of the first half, Lin drove left, penetrated and dished to Tyson Chandler for a monster dunk to give the Knicks an 18-point halftime lead.
Lin's scoring might have been down Wednesday night -- he finished with 10 points after averaging 26.8 in his previous six games -- but his playmaking ability was as good as the Kings feared. Lin had 13 assists in the Knicks' seventh straight win, a 100-85 victory at the Garden.
Lin, who played sparingly for Kings coach Keith Smart last season with Golden State, dazzled the Garden fans with long passes for alley-oops, bounce passes for backdoor layups and short ones for dunks.
The Kings knew they were coming into a buzz saw and were powerless to stop it.
"It's kind of like Superman out here," Kings point guard Tyreke Evans said. And that was before the game.
Sacramento's strategy wasn't novel: Teams around the league are going to try to get Lin to drive to the left because he's generally more effective going to his right.
"He is a hard-right driver," Evans said. "Just going to try to force him left and see what he does. Hopefully turn the ball over and we'll be out on the break."
Turnovers have been a negative for Lin; he had six Wednesday night and wasn't happy about it.
"My turnovers are sky-high right now," said Lin, who played only 26:16 in the blowout win. "Just got to keep looking at that film, keep picking and choosing my spots and building chemistry with the other guys . . . I'm going through stretches where I may be tired and I'll get three straight turnovers or I'll just lose focus. That's going to hurt us, especially against the really good teams. I really need to focus on that."
The other tactic teams may begin to use on Lin is to be more physical with him: Use bigger guards to body him up and make him pay when he drives to the hoop.
But Smart said he doesn't think that will work.
"Heard people talking about, 'Be more physical with him,' " Smart said. "What does he do? Just get up and play. He's banged around, falls on the floor. I would see that in practice . . . You try to be physical with him, you think that's going to rattle him, that's not going to rattle him because he just has a drive that is incredible."
