Jeremy Lin Saves New York; Kyrie Irving Is The Truth

Forget Steve Nash and Baron Davis. Jeremy Lin is taking over NYC. The Knicks survived New Jersey 99-92, and it was their popular bench warmer who had the city juiced. Deron Williams (21 points, 11 assists), the former best point guard in the world, was getting worked over by Lin (25 points, five rebounds, seven assists) down the stretch. Jumpers. Pick-n-rolls Everything was out of wack for New York. Carmelo (3-for-15) couldn’t make a shot, and Amar’e Stoudemire wasn’t much better, but Lin was pulling out reverses, and after a three-point play, Tyson Chandler was doing the Brandy Reed celebration from back in the day … The Sixers turned in another one of those weird box scores they’ve become famous for in their 11-point win over the Hawks. Six players scored in double figures for Philly, with four of them (the only guys who got in who weren’t starting) coming off the bench … “Kevin Love has really gotten it going since he stepped on Luis Scola‘s face…” Huh? We missed part of Minnesota’s win over Houston, but we DID hear that. Apparently the refs missed it too. But Scola being a good soldier didn’t wild out like Nicky in Casino, and a confrontation was avoided. Surprising, because they nearly came to blows the last time these teams met. But it fired Love up. He went for 25 and 18 in the win. Dirty? Like drug money … We’ve given up trying to figure out the Magic. A week ago they couldn’t make a shot. Now, after a night of being shut out of hotels in Indy because of some football game, Orlando came into Indiana and followed Dwight Howard (27 points) to a four-point win over the Pacers … Derrick Rose dominated his matchup with Brandon Jennings (eight points, five assists) in the Bulls’ 113-90 win, going for 26 points and 13 dimes … In the matchup that nobody cared about, Greg Monroe (24 points, 16 rebounds) laid down the gauntlet in Detroit’s two-point win over the Hornets … The Lakers didn’t get into Utah until four in the morning before their 96-87 loss to the Jazz, and it showed. Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol combined for 71 of the team’s points, and while you can chalk that up not to rest but rather to “the rest of this team sucks,” what you can say was that Utah’s bench destroyed the Lakers. Earl Watson (11 helpers) was a difference on one leg, C.J. Miles caught an arena-shaking oop and three forwards off the pine scored in double figures (Josh Howard, Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter). The close game unraveled in the fourth with Mike Brown getting tossed and the Lakers running out of fumes … The Nuggets could’ve at least attempted to check Nicolas Batum. Instead, they let him score 33 points and stroke nine triples off the bench in Portland’s easy 117-97 win. The Blazers closed the door in the third when they turned to Gerald Wallace as their de-facto point. Wallace went coast-to-coast on two straight possessions, first finding Aldridge (29 points) for a dunk and then Batum for a three to drive the knife into Denver’s chest … The Blazer fans also got it right by booing the swag out of Rudy Fernandez. He proceeded to brick nearly every J he took … Keep reading to hear about Kyrie Irving hitting another huge shot …

Kyrie Irving is the truth. Twice in the final minutes, the second one accounting for the game’s final points, Irving (20 points, seven assists) hit crazy layups in the lane to push Cleveland to a 91-88 upset over the defending champs. As for the Mavs, their last shot ended in a Brandan Wright trey that almost completely missed the basket … You know Dirk (24 points) isn’t right when he’s getting disrespected by Andy Varejao (17 points, 17 rebounds). The wild man smashed on Nowitzki’s head on a fast break after Dirk got about five inches off the floor … Tony Parker DESTROYED OKC with 42 points in the Spurs’ surprisingly easy 107-96 win over the best team in the West … 17 points from Michael Redd (remember that guy) led Phoenix to a six-point win over the Bobcats, who are now 3-21 and quickly becoming the worst team since Richmond High School before Coach Carter … And the Kings held off Golden State in overtime, 114-106. Tyreke Evans (26 points, nine assists) and DeMarcus Cousins (21 points, 20 rebounds) both had monster nights … Some of the Dime crew was in Miami yesterday, and we got back to the hotel just in time for Kentucky’s 86-52 win over South Carolina and it felt like we were watching two teams playing different sports. Kentucky absolutely mauled an athletic SC team, doing whatever they wanted on offense, and South Carolina seemingly couldn’t even make a pass without the length of Kentucky making it a struggle. And Anthony Davis – good god. His 116 blocks (not sure how many he’ll finish with… he had 22 points, eight rebounds and eight blocks yesterday) would put him in the top 40 in the nation amongst TEAMS. He has more by himself than good defensive teams like Duke and Michigan State. ESPN’s Jimmy Dykes is saying all sorts of crazy stuff. He said that Davis will be the next Garnett and then followed up in the second half by saying his career will look a lot like Shaq‘s … And Blake Griffin (21 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists) nearly had a triple-double in the Clippers’ big win in Washington while DeAndre Jordan (18 points, 11 rebounds) sent down another stupidly ridiculous alley-oop, and L.A. as a team had their own highlight factory … No clue how we didn’t notice this before, but Reggie Evans HAS to be the leader of the all-bad hairline team. Dude doesn’t even have one. He’s rocking the Richard Jenkins … We’re out like Tiquan Underwood.

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