So, about a week ago, I asked him who he thought Jeremy Lin made better on the basketball court. I told him I was thinking of two particular players.

He replied with, “Landry Fields, Bill Walker, and Steve Novak”, and he was right. I told him I was thinking of Jeffries and Chandler. He told me I was right.

And that’s probably the best thing about Lin from the perspective of a Knicks fan. He makes everyone better. Why not Carmelo Anthony?

We’ll find out tonight.

In fact, right now, a lot of people blame Mike D’Antoni for not inserting Lin into his starting lineup when he was originally signed for a non-guaranteed amount of approximately $800,000. (That money was guaranteed on Tuesday.)

On December 9, sixteen days before the NBA season had even began, the Warriors cut Jeremy Lin for cap reasons. Just two days later, the Houston Rockets picked him up off waivers. His role was to backup Kyle Lowry, who unfortunately and also somewhat ironically just went down with a hyperextended elbow injury last night. The day the season started for the Knicks – December 25 – the Rockets waived Lin to make space for Samuel Dalembert.

By December 27, the Knicks claimed Lin off waivers. I would like to think that my reasoning at the time was somewhat rationale. I argued that Lin was not a long term solution, nothing to get excited about, and not “likely to be the Knicks point guard in April or May…” In the original post, I noted how Lin’s game revolved around “the pick and roll and quality defense”. I should have known then that he had the chance to blossom in a run and gun system. Like many others, I ignored the somewhat obvious signs.

(For the record, the audience on that post was extraordinarily critical. Looking back, rightfully so.)

Starting on December 28, Jeremy Lin consistently played during the end of games, always when the outcome had already been decided.

Those who blame Mike D’Antoni for not playing Lin from the get-go need to analyze Lin’s first five games as a Knick, when he did get play, just failed to show his full repertoire. Lin’s most infamous games came against the Kings, when he played just 3:51 and picked up four fouls and two turnovers.

On January 17, the Knicks assigned Lin down to their D-League affiliate, the Erie BayHawks. In one game with the BayHawks, Lin posted a triple double – 28 points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds.

On January 23, Baron Davis, then lauded as the Knicks’ savior, returned to practice. It appeared as if the season rested on the veteran’s shoulders. The same day, Jeremy Lin was recalled from the BayHawks and joined the Knicks.

From January 24 to February 3, Lin played in four separate games, combining for a total of 38:47, 23 points, 15 assists, and two steals. Most of that was in garbage time. He played over 20 minutes only against the Rockets, finishing with nine points and six assists.

However on February 4, Lin got the chance to show his hand due to Knicks injuries and lack of success from other “point guards”. This resulted in Lin’s first stellar performance, which occurred against Deron Williams and the New Jersey Nets. By this time, Baron Davis had already reached another setback. Lin finished with 25 points and seven assists, combined with just one turnover in 35:52 of play.

On February 6, he dominated the Utah Jazz to the tune of 28 points and eight assists. He played every minute of the second half, missing just three minutes and eight seconds from the game entirely. Seven of his eight turnovers came in the second half as well, where he likely felt fatigue and tiredness.

On February 8, with expectations mounted, Lin did not stop rolling. Against John Wall, the Harvard point guard scored 23 points and dished 10 assists. He became the first player since LeBron James to score more than 22 points and dish eight assists in his first two career starts.

The most amazing thing, to me at least, is that all three games have resulted in wins, even without the help of superstars Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony in two of them.

And now it’s February 9. The toughest part from here on out will be sustaining his level of productivity. Onward and upward for Jeremy Lin.

*

So why has Lin been so successful? I posed some variation of this question on Twitter last night and got some really good responses. Credit is listed in parenthesis.

• D’Antoni and His System. Many are scared to give him credit, but it is under his system where Lin is succeeding. The running and gunning and the seven seconds or less and the offense actually work. I think that shocks some people. Lin could arguably be the best point guard D’Antoni has coached in his tenure in New York. While he hasn’t had a talented bunch, it does say something about Lin. (@ConnorHuchton, @jombi89)
• Previous Point Guards. The point guards that have ran the show this season for D’Antoni – Douglas, Shumpert, Bibby, Melo – have done a horrendous job. They don’t do the things that Lin has a natural tendency to do. This has helped New York and its fans to praise Lin for being the point guard that can save this team. (@Shlish)
• Skills. A few brought up his inherent basketball skills – like the way he gets to the basket with ease, how he finishes through contact, finds the open man, avoids turnovers, has a natural defensive prowess, and knows the right decisions to make off the pick and roll. (@Blumonkeebiz, @TheCfaithful, @Citizen_Insane_)

Have another reason you think Lin has been as good as he has? Post it in the comments.

Lin’s two extraordinary games have sparked sensation within New York; the stats speak for themselves – 53 points total, 15 assists, nine turnovers, and most importantly two wins – but here are my observations:

• He runs the pick and roll surprisingly well and gets out on the fast break quickly. Look at what happens when D’Antoni gets a semi-decent point guard.
• Lin favors his right hand over his left and it’s particularly noticeable when he goes up for a layup on the left side. Teams will eventually pick up on that and attack his left hand ruthlessly.
• On his contract: he is paid a non-guaranteed, pro-rated $762,000 this season ($11,545.45 per game) while Carmelo Anthony, for comparison’s sake, gets paid a guaranteed $18.5 million ($280,606.06 per game). Melo makes almost twenty five times the amount.
• It goes without saying, but Lin has earned himself the starting point guard role easily and without a doubt. Shumpert and Douglas were clearly never suited for the position anyway.
• While D’Antoni has found himself a thoroughbred in Lin, the second year point guard has played over 80 minutes in the past two games. Lin gets the day off on Tuesday, but still needs to get less usage. It’s easy to ride the hot hand – and Lin definitely has the hot hand – but it’s also necessary to take a step back and realize this could be a useful player further down the line… like in the playoffs.
• Lin has been able to hit the the open man. A lot of times you would see Douglas look straight at the hoop or telegraph his passes when he was running the show. Lin does none of the above. He puts the ball in the right place without letting the defense know he is going to do so, and it makes watching the team one hundred times easier on the naked eye.

Young Jeremy didn’t win these two on his own; he did it with the help of Jared (five charges), Shump, Landry, Steve Novak (5-8 3PM), Bill Walker, and Tyson, but it was Lin leading the charge from the get-go. And from couch, it sure looked like magic.

Let’s get one thing out of the way right now: the Heat had, by my count, ten dunks, including some ridiculous ones, including an over the shoulder alley from Norris Cole to LeBron, a Wade to LeBron floater, both a reverse-two-handed Kobe Special and a pretty hop-step power move from Wade and perhaps the worst, a back-down-and-face-up left-handed explosion from LeBron that was arguably on Bill Walker’s face. Los Angeles Clippers who? The Miami Heat’s athletic ability and flair are unparalleled. No one can charge a building like they do.

Now back to the part of the game I don’t necessarily want to forget. With Carmelo out, there were a lot of minutes available in this one and Billy “Bad News” Walker, whose distate for LeBron is well documented, stepped up, carrying the Knicks in the second and third quarters with ridiculous three point shooting, which included one he banked from pretty much straight away. I think I just heard him call “glass.” He finished 7-12 for 21, all of his points coming off his 10 three point attempts. Walker also got physical with LeBron late in the game and didn’t hesitate to tell him about it. You’re not going to believe this, but LeBron just kind of shrugged it off.

Outside of Walker’s heroics, on the offensive end the Knicks didn’t do much to distinguish themselves. Making shots continues to be a problem. Other than Tyson Chandler (2-3), not a single player other than Walker shot better than 33% (Toney Douglas: 6-18, Amar’e: 5-14, Landry Fields: 4-12, Iman Shumpert: 2-6, Mike Bibby: 2-9, Steve Novak: 2-7, I could go on but I think you get it.) Their 41% shooting from three kept them in the game, but even with Walker’s hot hand, the Knicks made just 35.7% of their shots overall (30-84). All those misses, coupled with nineteen turnovers, means a lot of transition play for Miami and that leads to the paragraph above where I’m forced to recount LeBron and Wade’s score of aerial acrobatics.

Despite Wade and James combining for 59, which wasn’t surprising considering they were being guarded by a combination of Landry Fields (below-average NBA athlete), Bill Walker (can’t move laterally) and Iman Shumpert (able defender prone to rookie mistakes), the Knicks played good defense. They held the rest of the Heat to just forty points and limited Chris Bosh to thirteen on 4-18 shooting. On the road against the team that I’d bet is going to win the championship, 99 points isn’t a bad effort. Defense certainly kept the Knicks in the game early on and carried them until they got hot for what felt like the first time all season.

There are two things the Knicks need to take away from last night’s game. The first is that like pretty much every basketball team ever constituted, they are better when they move the ball. We all know this. They did a pretty good job of doing that last night and it eventually led to Bill Walker finding his stroke. That’s something Carmelo Anthony needs to be especially aware of. The second thing is that they need to emulate the Heat. Remember, James and Wade didn’t appear to be the best fit when they initially came together. But with time, serious determination to become a cohesive unit (remember the training camp on the army base?) and savvy play design from Eric Spoelstra, they’ve made it work. The Knicks haven’t had a ton of time thanks to the lockout, and they don’t have a coach who seems capable of scheming to the strengths Carmelo and Amar’e do have. But Anthony and Stoudemire can dedicate themselves to learning to play together. And with disbelief that they can do it brewing around the league and among the fans, the impetus for them to prove everyone wrong is there, just as criticism of LeBron’s Decision motivated the Miami. I don’t care if it costs the Knicks a trip to the playoffs because it leads to ten turnovers a game (and it probably won’t.)  They need to devote the rest of this season to playing together.  The Knicks are 7-12 and in tenth place in the East.  How much worse can it get? In the long run it will be well worth it, whatever the cost.

The Knicks needed more than twelve points from Amar’e last night if they were going to win. They needed Mike Bibby to make more shots than he did, or Toney Douglas to get sixteen more efficiently. They needed to halve their turnovers. They needed one more sublime performance – Walker’s hot hand just wasn’t enough. That’s largely a function of the quality of the Knick personnel, especially without one of their stars; they simply didn’t have the firepower to keep up and it caught up with them in the end. But if Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony can find a way to emulate Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, this thing can still work. If they can’t, the second decade of the Knicks’ 21st century might not be much better than the first.

The theme of the night was rebounding. The Knicks out-rebounded Charlotte 53 to 33 and they were led by Tyson Chandler‘s 17 boards, including 8 offensive. Chandler had a monster night, also finishing with 20 points in the blowout win. He was 9-10 from the floor.

Also chipping in with an excellent game in the rebounding department was Carmelo Anthony, who finished the game with 11 boards. That was pretty much it for Melo though, as he went 0-7 from the field and finished with a career-low 1 point. While it’s disconcerting to see him have that poor of a night scoring, it was encouraging to see him moving the ball, making the extra pass and not being a black whole that sucked all the shots into his orbit. The Knicks as a team shared the ball very well, collecting 26 assists on 39 baskets, an excellent ratio. Conversely, the Bobcats were assisted on just 10 of their 27 made field goals.

Also struggling from the field were Bill Walker and Iman Shumpert, who went a combined 2-15. Shumpert missed three lay-ups and a dunk. He did not have a strong game. It might be time for a move to the bench for the rookie, despite his strong outing against Denver last week. He’s clearly not a point guard, and that’s throwing off some of the rest of his game. If you move him off the ball and let him be a scorer on the second unit, he can start getting back in a groove. He’s got all the talent in the world, but he’s being mis-used right now, and you don’t want him to form bad habits. Get the kid back at the 2-guard position.

Amar’e Stoudemire had a strong game in the wake of his name surfacing in trade rumors yesterday. He had 18 points and 8 rebounds and looked as fresh and spry as he had all season. He threw down a couple of big time dunks and looked to have his explosiveness back, even if just for tonight. He only wound up taking 12 shots, but his minutes were down and for the most part he was much more involved in the offense when he was on the court tonight than in the last few games. If Amar’e can get back to playing good basketball, that’s obviously a huge development for the Knicks.

Let’s see, what else? Jared Jeffries hit a couple of outside shots early in the game and then of course took one of the ugliest shots in the history of basketball to realign the universe later on. Steve Novak was 3-3 from the three point line, Jeremy Lin got to spin and put up 8 points of his own, Toney Douglas looked more confident than he has in a while and Jerome Jordan had a monster jam in garbage time.

That’s really about it, other than to qualify all of this optimism by reminding you that the Bobcats are not a very good basketball team. They were also missing D.J. Augustin and Corey Maggette, two of their (sadly) best players. Next up for the Knicks are the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are finishing up a game against the Miami Heat as I type this. Of course, the Knicks also take on the Heat on Friday. Kyrie Irving should provide a nice test for either Shumpert or Baron Davis if that latter returns from injury. The rookie number one pick is off to a terrific start to the season.

It was an ugly, but close, game throughout which featured over twenty lead changes. Neither team led by more than eight points. The Knicks used their strength on the offensive glass (18 offensive rebounds) to try to overcome their poor shooting. The Knicks out rebounded the Suns 54 to 38. However the Knicks shot just 37% as a team, as STAT & Melo were a combined 12-44 from the field. The Knicks at times moved the ball better than they have during this losing streak.

The turning point came with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter. With the Knicks “stars” Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony struggling to hit shots, Phoenix capitalized with a couple of baskets in transition to take a 5 point lead. The teams traded baskets after a Knicks timeout. Phoenix then jumped out to an 8 point lead after a Carmelo missed layup followed by another Anthony missed shot on the baseline. Knicks rookie Iman Shumpert  (20 points) suddenly found his shot and tried to will the Knicks back into the game. Shumpert hit a pair of jump shots to cut the Suns lead to 3. The teams would trade baskets until under a minute left when Shumpert would hit a key three pointer to keep New York in the game. Only to be followed up on the next possession by a Shannon Brown corner three that hit the far side of the rim, bounced up, hit the top of the backboard, and fell through the net. As long as it took you to read that description was as long as it felt for every Knick fan watching. Coming out of a timeout, the Knicks inbound to Anthony who takes another shot that his ego wouldn’t let him pass up. The ball would carom off the front of the rim into the hands of Tyson Chandler. Chandler would kick the ball out to the rookie Shumpert, who would then proceed to hit another three with 25.2 seconds left.

After the ensuing Phoenix timeout the Knicks would foul to eventually put Steve Nash at the line. Nash hits the pair putting the Knicks down four with 19 seconds left. After another Knicks timeout, Melo would follow his missed layup attempt with a put-back to get the Knicks within two. After a Suns inbound, Tyson Chandler would foul Steve Nash, who would then ice two free throws as the Garden faithful booed him. On the next Knicks inbound they got the ball to the top of the three point line; Stoudemire passed the ball (and set a screen at the same time) to Melo who hits a clutch three to bring the Knicks within one. And then for his third trip the line, Steve Nash hit two more free throws to give Phoenix a three point lead.

In the end, all the Knicks attempts at heroics would be for naught. In a very anti-climactic ending, the Knicks inbounded the ball the Shumpert from under the Suns basket. He ran up the court with fury and Phoenix attempted to foul Shumpert in the back court but the refs swallowed their whistles. Shumpert got past half court and hoisted up a poor attempt at a shot as the Knicks went on to lose their fourth straight game.

Phoenix would hit 7 of 12 from downtown. The Knicks themselves only shot 4-15 from behind the arc. Steve Nash, expectingly, killed the Knicks, scoring 26 points on 9 of 12 shooting to go along with 11 assists and 5 rebounds.

While this was not a good loss by any means there were some positives. The NYPD’s 14th precinct has called off the search for missing person Landry Fields, who had 17 points, 10 of those in the third quarter. Landry would also add 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals to make it a vintage Fields game.

The Knicks defense continues to be a work in progress but is already vastly improved from years past. The Knicks continue to switch incessantly on defense which is often leading to mismatches in favor of the other team. It’s hard to argue with the overall results as the Knicks are statistically a top ten defense this season. Certainly if the offense was clicking, and the Knicks were winning, then the defense would be lauded. It’s early and I believe that the offense will come. Especially with the addition of a point guard. Baron Davis, if you are wondering, might start playing as early as next week.

The Knicks (6-8) will get the chance to redeem themselves and snap their losing streak on Friday night as Andrew Bogut and the Milwaukee Bucks (4-9) come to town. The Bucks come into MSG losers of their last three games and losing them badly by an average of 16 points per game.

Knicks fans don’t come any more passionate than I do. But tonight I went out to a bar with the full intention of watching the Knicks. One eye would focus on the NFL playoffs, the other on my beloved Knicks. I have Time Warner Cable, so picture-in-picture, a glass of wine and stoic contemplation were not an option.

Well it didn’t go down like that. Instead, our beloved New York Knicks did nothing to earn my, or our, attention. I make no apologies. They stunk. Amar’e Stoudemire (7-19 for 14 points, 5 turnovers), Bill Walker (1-6, 3 points) and Iman Shumpert (3-10, 6 points) were especially bad, and managed two free throw attempts between the three of them. That’s a bad sign. Amar’e continued trying to force his way to the rim with predictable results, especially against the twin towers of Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins. The only bright spots were another solid performance from Josh “5 for 10″ Harrellson (12 points), some progress from Toney Douglas (5-10 for 14 points and +4) and the return of Jared Jeffries (who only played three minutes). This is the risk you take when you build an exceptionally top-heavy roster: lose one of your “Big Three” and big trouble ensues. That’s what happened without Carmelo Anthony last night.

A twelve point difference tells you nothing. It was worse. With about two minutes to go in the third, the Knicks were down thirty one. Thirty one. You think Carmelo Anthony would have mattered? What would he have done? Guess what: guess don’t generally put up +31s. Watching him go against Kevin Durant (28 points on 10-13 shooting last night) would probably have been depressing anyway. The Knicks went against a team that’s as good or better than any in the league and they got smoked. They’re not quite ready for prime time yet.

There’s nowhere to turn, fellow Knicks fans: the ship be sinking. Grab a life preserver.

Jonathan Fishner is the author of the blog The Real King Fish where he claims to have been “Reppin’ The Knicks Since Day One.” You can follow him on Twitter - @therealkingfish.

Carmelo Anthony sustained injuries to both his hand and ankle, the latter of which knocked him out of the game for good early in the third quarter. It wouldn’t really have mattered if Melo had played the rest of the game, because the Knicks were dreadful in all areas.

Stoudemire proceeded to play what was probably his worst game in a Knick uniform in Anthony’s absence. He went 1-7 from the field on his way to just 6 points, grabbed only 3 rebounds in 20 minutes of play and was -12 on the evening.

The injuries and foul trouble forced Mike D’Antoni to go deeper into his bench than he normally likes to do and much earlier than he ever wanted to as well. Steve Novak and Renaldo Balkman got to spin after a few games off each, but didn’t really do anything of note – Novak hit a three, and Balkman got fouled once.

Bill Walker hit a few threes. Jorts did too.

Iman Shumpert played the worst game of his young career as the Knicks took their first loss in a game that he started. Shumpert was trigger-happy all night, and he set a rookie season high for field goal attempts in a game. At one point, he had attempted more shots than Stoudemire, Anthony and Tyson Chandler combined. The lone encouraging thing about his performance tonight is that his poor shooting did not deter from him staying active on the defensive end of the floor whatsoever, as he recorded four steals and stayed active in the passing lanes. Shump is a rookie, and he’s going to have more games like this. It’s a learning experience; the kid still appears as though he’ll be a good player. I expect we’ll see a very different Shump-Shump on Saturday night against the Thunder.

I wanted to get through this recap with mentioning Toney Douglas, but he broke out of a shooting slump by hitting three straight shots in the fourth quarter after starting 0-9. Maybe it’s the start of something. Probably not.

The bench unit closed Memphis’ lead in the fourth, nearly getting it down to single digits at the end, but they were way too far behind. Still, nice effort from the back-ups.

The lack of ball movement was especially alarming for the Knicks, as they struggled to create offense in half court sets. The Grizzlies were seemingly in every passing lane, Tony Allen and Mike Conley were harassing ball-handlers and Marc Gasol had what seemed like I’m reasonably sure was a billion blocked shots (actual count: four). Both Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo had strong games for the Grizzlies, the latter was repeatedly left open for threes by Landry Fields, who didn’t really do much of anything in this game either.

On to the next one. The Knicks take on Kevin Durant and the Thunder in Oklahoma City on Saturday night, in a game that Carmelo Anthony may or may not play. The Thunder are without backup point guard Eric Maynor, who tore his ACL. Starter Russell Westbrook will provide another tough test for Shumpert, and the Stoudemire-Serge Ibaka match-up is probably the ripped-iest match-up in basketball. OKC currently has a 10-2 record, while the Knicks are 6-5.

Carmelo Anthony led the way for the Knicks with 27 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Tyson Chandler had 13 rebounds, but he was even more effective altering shots. His presence in the paint neutralized Elton Brand and any post game for Philadelphia. Amare Stoudemire was efficient on offense scoring 20 points on 8-14 shooting while grabbing 10 rebounds.

Tonight’s x-factor was Josh Harrellson. The rookie forward from Kentucky scored 13 points off the bench and spread the floor hitting three three-pointers. Coach Mike D’Antoni also went with a shorter rotation of eight players, the least amount of players he’s used in a game all season.

There was also a scary moment that took the air out of MSG. Tyson Chandler was hit hard by 76ers big man Tony Battie and remained on the floor for two minutes while being assessed by Knicks trainers. Luckily for New York, Chandler got up, went to the bench to make sure he was ok, and then returned to the game and played most of the second half.

The win improves the Knicks to 6-4 overall and 3-2 at home. The loss drops the 76ers to 7-4 and 3-3 on the road. New York hits the road next to face the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday, January 12^th.

Follow me on Twitter: @MikeAScotto