TORONTO (AP) — Already writing the NBA’s best story, Jeremy Lin has now scripted a thrilling finish.
Nothing about the kid from Harvard should be a surprise anymore. When he launched a 3-pointer in a tie game with a half-second left in Toronto on Tuesday night, the result seemed obvious.
“I knew it was going in,” Knicks guard Iman Shumpert said.
Who would doubt it at this point?
Lin’s 3-pointer capped his finishing flurry of six straight points to close the game as the Knicks rallied for a 90-87 victory over the Raptors, extending their winning streak to six.
Their season sputtering just two weeks ago, before Lin escaped the bench, the Knicks ( 14- 15) can get back to .500 with a victory over Sacramento tonight.
And with Lin running their show, that’s exactly what they expect.
“He continues to impress every night,” New York’s Jared Jeffries said. “Every game he plays better, he does more and more to help us win basketball games. You can’t ask any more of a kid coming into this situation.”
Huge in New York, Linsanity was even bigger in Toronto, whose international community couldn’t wait for a look at the NBA’s first American born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent.
A season- high crowd of 20,092 was only the Raptors’ second sellout of the season, and some 75 reporters and 16 cameras packed a Tuesday morning press conference to hear Lin speak.
“Are we in the playoffs now?” coach Mike D’Antoni joked as he made his way to the front of the room.
Not yet, but they sure have a shot now with Lin.
The reigning Eastern Conference player of the week scored 27 points and added a careerhigh 11 assists, shaking off a sloppy first half to carry the Knicks down the stretch.
Toronto led 87-82 with less than two minutes to go when Shumpert stole the ball from Jose Calderon and drove in for an uncontested dunk. After a missed shot, Lin completed a three- point play, tying it at 87 with 1:05 left.
Leandro Barbosa missed a 3 for Toronto and, at the other end, Shumpert missed a jumper but Tyson Chandler grabbed the rebound. Lin took the ball near midcourt and let the clock run down to five seconds before driving and pulling up against Calderon to bury the decisive shot.
“You just watch and you’re in awe,” D’Antoni said. “He held it until five-tenths of a second left. He was pretty confident that was going in, no rebounds, no nothing. That ball was being buried.”
Lin, cut by both Golden State and Houston in December, struggled early. He didn’t score for the first eight minutes of the game, then turned the ball over on three straight possessions early in the second quarter and Toronto took advantage with a 6- 0 run, widening its lead to 13 points.
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