Jeremy Lin: Pattern of Turnovers Is Achilles' Heel for Knicks PG

We all knew Jeremy Lin had trouble taking care of the ball headed into Friday's game against the New Orleans Hornets.

The difference on Friday was the Knicks lost, and Lin's play in other areas didn't overshadow his turnovers.

Lin still finished with 26 points, five assists and four steals in the Knicks' 89-85 defeat to the lowly Hornets. But he had eight turnovers in the first half alone and ended up with nine turnovers in the game.

You could give Lin credit for having only one turnover in the second half, but when all is said and done, he still had nine turnovers.

In his six starts prior to Friday's ugly affair, Lin was averaging six turnovers. After his turnover rampage against the Hornets, Lin has now committed 45 turnovers in his seven starts with the Knicks.

Per ESPN:

"

Lin set an NBA record for turnovers with 45 in his first four (sic) starts. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Lin's mark is the highest since the league began keeping individual stats in 1977-78. He broke Glenn Robinson's record of 38 turnovers. 

"

You figured that Lin's shooting numbers would go down eventually, but that wasn't a big area of concern given the way he's been getting his teammates involved.

The Knicks can't expect to continue to win games with Lin averaging 6.4 turnovers in his starts.

Have the Knicks been better with Lin? Absolutely.

Will he continue to be their starting point guard? No doubt.

But will they go on a lot of winning streaks from here on out with him coughing the ball up at an alarming rate? No.

The reality is, if the Knicks were playing a playoff contender on Friday night, they would have been blown out of Madison Square Garden. The fact that they were even in the game was because they were playing the Hornets and Amar'e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler stepped up.

Funny how just a couple of days ago we were questioning Stoudemire returning to the floor and if he would disrupt the Knicks' rhythm. He did nothing of the sort on Friday, scoring 26 points and adding 12 rebounds.

Perhaps this will cool Linsanity, albeit for a couple days. It's clear by now that Lin does have a problem taking care of the rock.

Every player has a weakness, and ironically, the 7-23 Hornets just exposed Lin's to America.