And the Jeremy Lin magic rolls on. The Force is so strong with this guy that even when he doesn’t necessarily play all that well (as was the case last night), his team still wins and somehow overcomes the force of nature that is Kevin Love in the process … Lin led the Knicks to a come-from-behind win over the T-Wolves in Minnesota, 100-98, getting 20 points, six boards, eight assists and three steals. He was only 8-24 from the field, missed a few foul shots and turned it over six times, but, really, who cares? New York is now 5-0 with Lin playing heavy minutes in games (4-0 with him starting), and he added to the record we told you about in Smack yesterday – his 109 points in his first four starts are the most since the NBA/ABA merger in the ’70s (passing Allen Iverson) … Darren Rovell tweeted: “The Jeremy Lin Factor: Target Center has its largest Timberwolves crowd since March 12, 2004.” If that’s really due to Lin, that’s just crazy. The Lakers, The Blake Show, the Mavs – none of those draws have put more people in the seats in Minnesota than Jeremy Lin?? … Because of the Lin story, Kevin Love’s absurd game will only get passing mention in most media outlets today, but good God, he was a monster last night. Love had 32 and 21 boards (10-21 from the floor, 10-10 from the foul line, two threes, 1 steal, 1 block), for his second 30-20 game of the season, and in general, just ate the Knicks’ front line for dinner. He now has six of them in his career, passing Kevin Garnett as the franchise’s all-time leader … The Mavs and the Blazers played one of the worst double-overtime games you’ve ever seen last night. In the third quarter, one of the Mavs’ announcers likened it to one of the first games after the Lockout. Both teams look like they had no legs (they both played Friday night), there were lots and lots of badly missed shots, and there was ton of guys just standing around … Dirk Nowitzki had 20, including a dagger 15-footer over LaMarcus Aldridge (who was great with 33 and 12) with 16 seconds left. Dirk appeared to yell some kind of (potentially offensive) craziness after the shot went down, so we’ll see how the League handles it in the coming days … Since Charles Barkley called Dirk “washed up” a week or so ago, Nowitzki had been averaging 28 ppg and shooting 60% from the field heading into last night …
Keep reading for Jason Richardson’s unearthly performance and what Lob City did to MJ’s squad …
If Jeremy Lin overshadowed what Kevin Love did last night, there was no way Jason Richardson‘s performance was going get any attention whatsoever. It’s a shame, because J-Rich was unreal against the Bucks in Milwaukee. He went, ballistic, racking up 31 points, going 11-18 from the floor and 9-11 from three-point range, with most of his onslaught coming in the second half of Orlando’s 99-94 win. After the game, J.J. Redick tweeted: “I will literally remember the 2nd half of tonight’s game for the rest of my life. Incredible shooting performance by @jrich23! #greatness.” And Quentin Richardson tweeted this: “S/O to the fan who got my bro Jrich heated tonite. Thanks for lighting the fire homey. Lol” … The Spurs cruised to an easy win over the Nets in the pictured Hardwood Classics throwback uniforms. No Spurs starter cracked 27 minutes, but the big story is that Manu Ginobili returned. He scored 8 points in 17 minutes … Lob City invaded Charlotte and just slapped the Bobcats, 111-86. Chris Paul was carving them up, finishing with 18 points, 14 assists and what seemed like wide-open lob looks to Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan every time down the court. There was one play on a semi-break where CP dropped a no-look, behind-the-back bounce pass to a charging Griffin who got it near the top of the key and seemingly took off from the parking lot for a savage one-handed dunk … What the hell is this? … Aaaand the Bobcats. Wow. They’ve now lost 14 games in a row, a record for their franchise. Their night (and season) was embodied by Reggie Williams‘ performance: 1-12, 2 points … We’re out like Charlotte’s heart.
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