'Linsanity' Stopped by Nets
Last night's Nets versus Knicks game marked more than a rematch of two New York area teams – it marked a rematch between Linsanity and Linsanity's first victim. And this time the Nets won 100-92.
The Feb. 4 Nets versus Knicks game was Jeremy Lin's break out game and the start of the craze sweeping the world known as Linsanity. In that game Lin scored 25 points coming off the bench to lead New York to victory. And that was the start of Lin and the Knicks' incredible run.
However, Net's point guard Deron Williams was not going to let that happen twice. Williams told USA Today, "With all the 'Linsanity' we took it personal a little bit today and came out with the victory." Williams himself had an incredible game, scoring 38 points and hitting eight three-point shots, which is a career high.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
This victory definitely offered Williams some vengeance. He told The Wall Street Journal, "I don't really watch too many games but I do see Twitter. People tweet me and every, you know, three lines, it was 'Jeremy Lin destroyed Deron Williams.' So I definitely took offense to that in the first game and definitely, like I said, I had [the second game] circled [on his calendar]."
Though Williams played a great game and outscored Lin, he certainly didn't shut down the young Knicks' pint guard. Lin scored 21 points, dished out nine assists, pulled down seven rebounds, and snatched up four steals.
Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said the loss rested on the whole team's shoulders. "Our energy wasn't where it had to be," he told USA Today. D'Antoni added, "We had to pick [the energy] up earlier and [we] just couldn't do it."
When asked about the Deron-Jermey match up, D'Antoni said, "Jeremy still got 21 and nine. He had a great game, good game. Deron had a great game and that'll be that way sometimes ... I'm not big on the matchups just because it's a team thing and as team we just didn't perform very well."
Linsanity faces its next test against the Atlanta Hawks this Thursday.
