'Linsanity' Over for Knicks? Team to Re-Evaluate Its Goals
Jeremy Lin's rising star seems to be plummeting for the New York Knicks, who have only won three out of their last eight games.
The month of February was filled with international media coverage, conversations surrounding Lin's Asian-American ethnicity and a multitude of puns for the record-breaking guard who made his first NBA start in February. However, after leading the Knicks offense past lower-ranking teams like New Jersey, Minnesota, Utah and Washington, Lin's first real test came against the Miami Heat on Feb. 23.
Fans saw Lin stumble for the first time in the game, scoring only eight points with an equal amount of turnovers. However, he vowed to improve his game against his next opponent.
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"I'm not [going to] hang my head or anything like that," Lin said after the Heat game. "You can't win them all and you can't have a great game every game, but at the same time I need to understand what [I did] wrong and how [I can] improve."
However, it seemed like Lin and the Knicks were having issues understanding the team chemistry with the additions of guards Baron Davis, J.R. Smith and forward Carmelo Anthony to the rotation. After losing to the Nets in their second faceoff, the Knicks also fell short to the higher-ranking Celtics and Mavericks recently.
Anthony, the Knicks' small forward who has been a leading scorer on his previous teams, has admitted that he has had to make adjustments to play with the newly formed Knicks. Still, he didn't hide his disappointment with the most recent loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
"We lost," Anthony told the media after his loss on Tuesday. "Losses don't sit well with me."
Since Anthony has returned to the Knicks led by Lin as point guard, the team has lost four of six games. Although the playoff-bound elite teams that he and the Knicks are faced with have an impact, the team's championship-winning center, Tyson Chandler, said the team has to re-evaluate its goals.
"We honestly got to figure out what we want to accomplish this year," Chandler said after the loss to the Mavericks. "We have yet to figure that out."
However, the team does not have much time to figure out its next move with a game against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, one day after the loss to the championship-defending Mavericks.
