Knicks gets back on track as Jeremy Lin, Steve Novak light up Mavs in 4th

NEW YORK -- Linsanity lives.

Forget the off night that had NBA fans worldwide wondering if the Jeremy Linstory was too good to be true. It's still plenty good, all right.

The Harvard sensation was back at his whirling ways Sunday, and the stage couldn't have been better -- against the defending champions on national TV.

Lin was Lin, and that was good enough for the New York Knicks to win.

Hours after the opening of "Saturday Night Live" spoofed the Lin phenomenon, the point guard had 28 points and a career-high 14 assists to carry the Knicks to a 104-97 victory that ended the Dallas Mavericks' six-game winning streak.

"Looking back, it's like I was watching them win the championship last year, and that's obviously where this team wants to go," Lin said.

"This is helpful to us, not just to me but to us, just to be able to see where our team can go and what we can become, and I think that's the biggest takeaway from tonight," he said.

Lin already owns the highlights and headlines, and now he has some new admirers after bouncing back from a nine-turnover performance against lowly New Orleans by dominating a Dallas defense that made even LeBron Jameslook ordinary in the NBA Finals.

Each Day Gets Better

Jeremy Lin had 28 points, 14 assists and five steals against the Mavericks. He is the fifth player in the last 15 seasons to reach at least those totals in a game.

28+ Pts, 14+ Ast, 5+ Steals in Game

Last 15 Seasons

Player	Date	Opponent
Jeremy Lin	Sunday	Mavericks
Chris Paul	3/12/11	Kings
Chris Paul	4/1/09	Clippers
Nate Robinson	2/11/09	Clippers
Gary Payton	3/31/00	Kings
Darrell Armstrong	11/24/99	Mavericks

After the final buzzer, Lin got a hug from a fellow Bay Area product, and someone who knows a thing or two about playing the point -- Mavs star Jason Kidd.

"He looks a little bit like Steve Nash out there," Kidd said, referring to the two-time MVP of the Phoenix Suns.

In a game of wild momentum swings, the Knicks reeled off 17 straight points in the first quarter, fell behind by 12 in the third, then pulled it out to beat the Mavericks for only the third time in the last 20 meetings.

"I think they found something in Lin, and they're starting to piece together a team that can beat anyone," Mavs guard Jason Terrysaid.

Steve Novak also delivered for the Knicks. He scored all 14 of his points in the fourth quarter, including four 3s. J.R. Smith scored 15 points in his Knicks debut as New York won for the eighth time in nine games.

Dirk Nowitzki scored a season-high 34 points for the Mavericks, ho had been playing championship-level defense but became the latest team who couldn't stop Lin.

"I was talking to them before the game and they were saying they had an answer for Lin," said Knicks center Tyson Chandler, who played for the Mavs last season, "I guess they were dead wrong on their scouting report."

Playing for the seventh straight game without the injured Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks got a huge lift from Smith, signed just Friday after returning from China.

Too Soon?

Jeremy Lin's first eight starts as an NBA point guard compare quite favorably with some Hall of Fame competition

Notable PGs in First 8 NBA Starts

Player	Points	Assists
Jeremy Lin	200	76
Isiah Thomas	184	51
Magic Johnson	147	57
John Stockton	80	82

Coach Mike D'Antoni had previously said Smith wouldn't play Sunday since he hadn't practiced yet. But when swingman Bill Walker also had to sit out with an injury, D'Antoni needed someone at that position, and Smith hit three of the Knicks' 12 3-pointers.

"First five minutes was really mind blowing," Smith said. "First thing I was thinking was don't airball your first shot. You never live that down in New York City. So once I made my first one, that really got me going."

Lin's turnovers Friday night matched the most in the NBA this season Friday in an 89-85 loss to New Orleans that stopped a seven-game winning streak. He had seven more Sunday and has committed six or more in six straight games, but D'Antoni said Saturday he wanted Lin to keep taking risks.

That paid off Sunday, when Lin got the Knicks back into a game that had seemed to be getting away in the third quarter, before shooters all around him got going in the fourth.

"I thought we had the game under control," Nowitzki said. "And then the fourth quarter, that really got the crowd back into it."

Novak made four 3-pointers in about 4½ minutes of the fourth quarter, then Lin buried one to give the Knicks a 90-81 lead with 6:51 remaining. The Mavs got it back down to two on Terry's 3-pointer with 3:26 left, but Lin answered with a 3, and the Mavs couldn't get closer than three again. Lin shot 11 of 20 overall.

Chandler capped it off with a dunk and finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

The Mavs came in holding opponents to an NBA-low 41.4 percent shooting. They were limiting teams to 39.2 percent during the winning streak, but the Knicks carved them up for 54 percent in the first quarter as Lin ran the offense flawlessly.

Lin actually started his NBA career with the Mavs' summer league team in 2010. But owner Mark Cuban said Lin preferred to play closer to home, and he signed with the Warriors, who cut him, as did Houston in December. The Knicks claimed him off waivers.

"It wasn't luck because there were how many other teams that could have signed Jeremy and the Knicks were the ones who went out and got him," Cuban said. "So they saw something and they were smart enough to go out and get him."

Friday's loss may have ended the Knicks' winning streak, but certainly not the buzz around Lin. Sunday's crowd included Kevin Costner, Eva Longoria, Spike Lee -- wearing Lin's No. 4 Harvard jersey -- and another famous Harvard product, Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg. Lin's high school coach from Palo Alto (Calif.) High School also made the trip.

Game notes

Baron Davis was in uniform for the Knicks but didn't play. He expects to make his season debut this week. ... Cuban, on the decision not to re-sign Chandler, whose left wrist was hurting a bit after a hard fall: "We wouldn't have been champions without Tyson. He's a phenomenal player, he's got incredible heart, he's amazing in the locker room and that's why we went out and got him. But the CBA changed everything and you have to adjust how you build and grow and maintain a team and try to win championship. So we did what we felt we had to do, not because we wanted to do it." ... Postgame X-rays on both of Chandler's wrists were negative. The Knicks announced that he will be reevaluated before Monday's game against New Jersey. ... Lin is trying to shield his family in Taiwan from Linsanity. Lin requested Sunday that the media there respect the privacy of his relatives, who he said are being "bombarded" since his emergence as an NBA star. Lin said: "I just want people to respect the privacy of my relatives in Taiwan and I think hopefully this will get back to everybody because they need to live their lives as well."

Hornets slow down Jeremy Lin, snap Knicks' winning streak

NEW YORK -- Can't Lin 'em all.

Not the way Jeremy Lin handled the ball Friday night, and he put the blame for the loss that halted Linsanity squarely on himself.

Lin committed nine turnovers, tied for the most in the NBA this season, and New York's seven-game winning streak was stopped 89-85 by the New Orleans Hornets.

Lin scored 26 points but his turnovers nearly doubled his five assists, and the Knicks lost for the first time with Lin as a starter, falling back below .500 at 15-16 heading into a matchup with the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.

"Just a lackluster effort on my part coming out and careless with the ball, and so nine turnovers is obviously never going to get it done from your primary ballhandler," Lin said. "It's on me in terms of taking care of the ball and also the game in general.

"I think everyone wants to credit me for this last seven games, then I definitely deserve this one on my shoulders and so that's fine with me."

Trevor Ariza scored 25 points for the Hornets, who have won three in a row after a 4-23 start. Marco Belinelli added 17.

Amare Stoudemire had 26 points and 12 rebounds for New York.

Playing for the sixth straight game without injured All-Star Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks missed 20 of their 24 3-point attempts, were only 19-of-29 on free throws and were flat early, quieting a crowd that has been buzzing since Lin joined the rotation.

"Obviously it's very disappointing just because we felt like, I felt like this could've been a good game for us to win," Lin said. "But all the respect to New Orleans for what they did. They came in here with a great game plan and they shot well and they played harder than we did and they got the win."

Down by 12 early in the fourth, the Knicks made a run with Lin on the bench and cut it to 73-71 when Jared Jeffries hit a free throw after Lin returned during a timeout with 5:29 left.

Not Lin-vincible

Despite all his positive accomplishments, Jeremy Lin has struggled with turnovers. His 45 turnovers are the most in a player's first seven career starts since individual turnovers were first recorded in 1977-78.

Player	Turnovers
Jeremy Lin	45 (9 Friday)
Glenn Robinson	38
Mitch Richmond	35
Jerry Stackhouse	35
Allen Iverson	34

  -- Elias Sports Bureau

The Knicks got it down to two again on Lin's free throws with 1:06 to play, but Gustavo Ayonanswered with a bucket, Lin missed wildly on a drive to the basket, and when Belinelli's free throws with 25 seconds left made it 87-82, fans began heading for the exits, perhaps in search of Lin-burgers, "Lings" -- Asian-spiced chicken wings -- or "Lintinis," Lin-spired items that have begun popping up at bars around the city.

"It's the NBA, man. I mean, the kid is really good. I love his passion. What I love about him is he is so humble. He deserves everything he got right now and everything he is going through because, you know, the way he handles himself," Hornets guard Greivis Vasquez said. "But tonight it was a little bit different. We came out and played great team defense."

Thus ended a remarkable run by the Knicks, who were 8-15 when coach Mike D'Antoni finally turned to Lin, the undrafted point guard from Harvard who was perhaps days from being cut for the third time this season when he got this sputtering team on track.

The Knicks only figure to get stronger in the coming days. Anthony worked out before the game and is close to returning, and the Knicks signed his former Denver teammate, J.R. Smith, on Friday. Smith is eligible to return to the NBA after his Chinese team's season ended, and the Knicks believe he will strengthen their poor 3-point shooting.

But none of that helped Friday.

"They're long and they did defend well," D'Antoni said. "But at the same time, I was telling him he's trying to make the hardest pass out there; he's trying to make the home run pass. That will happen for young guys. When they collapse so much, he has to kick. At the same time, we weren't making any outside shots, so they weren't coming out.

"He'll learn. He'll get through it. I thought he played well. Second half, he adjusted."

The poor performance came just as many New York residents finally got to see Lin for the first time. Fueled largely by the player's popularity, MSG network and Time Warner reached a tentative deal Friday that puts Knicks games back on TV for some 2 million Time Warner Cable subscribers in the New York area. New York state officials and the NBA had pressured the companies to settle a dispute that began Jan. 1.

The stalemate left some fans out of Linsanity, which has made the Knicks the story in New York, where they have ranked much lower on the sports scene in recent years. The crowd of cameras and reporters at the morning shootaround was so large that one reporter cracked that the Knicks must have signed Kobe Bryant.

Who needs him? The Knicks already beat the Lakers, when Lin poured in 38 points to outscore Bryant.

That's turned Lin, who graced the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated, into one of sports' most unlikely stars.

"I lived through Vinsanity when I was with Toronto in Canada, and that was big then, but this is bigger than that," said Knicks interim general manager Glen Grunwald, referring to when Vince Carter played for the Raptors. "It's really hard to believe."

But it was finally halted in front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd in which many fans wore shirts that read either Lin or Linsanity above his No. 17.

Spike Lee, who usually wears Landry Fields' No. 2, switched up to a different model. He donned Lin's high school jersey from Palo Alto, Calif., a dark green No. 4 he wore over a neon green long-sleeved shirt, clashing horribly with the Hornets' green and purple Mardi Gras uniforms.

But the ugliest thing at the start was the Knicks' offense. Lin's five turnovers in the first quarter matched their number of baskets, and Chris Kaman had 10 points to lead the Hornets to a 27-13 lead. The Knicks cut it to 43-39 at the half.

"We had a few lulls in the second and a little bit in the fourth. But when you play that kind of defense, to hold that team to 13 points in the first quarter and 19 in the third, you set yourself up to have a chance," Hornets coach Monty Williams said.

The game was originally scheduled for ESPN, back when the story would have been Chris Paul's last visit to New York before the Knicks' expected pursuit this summer in free agency. Instead, the Knicks took themselves out of the free-agent market by acquiring Tyson Chandler, Paul was dealt the Clippers and the Knicks looked like they might have lasting point guard woes until Lin's emergence.

But he's been turnover prone -- committing at least six in five straight games -- and it finally came back to cost the Knicks this time.

"It takes a few games like this in order to learn from the mistakes," Stoudemire said. "It's a learning curve for him right now. He's going to watch film, I'm sure, and get better."

Game notes

NBAstore.com has shipped Lin merchandise to 23 countries since Feb. 4, with Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia ranking behind only the United States and Canada in largest shipments. ... The Knicks had won the previous six meetings. Their longest current winning streak against an opponent is eight straight wins over Washington. ... The Knicks paid tribute to former Mets catcher Gary Carter, who died Thursday, during a first-quarter timeout.