New York Knicks: Defense Key in Knicks Victory over Lakers

Madison Square Garden is fully submerged in the frenzy of Jeremy Lin. The young man has stepped up big-time for the Knicks and has inspired his teammates to play hard and have fun.

It is much easier for a basketball player to play defense when he is having fun and feeling inspired. This is exactly what the Knicks have done over the stretch of the winning streak. They have played solid defense and committed to making the hustle plays.

During their current winning streak, the Knicks have held the opponents to a field-goal percentage of 45 percent or lower. Their opponents have also committed 12 or more turnovers in every game. Over the last four games, the Knicks have 15 blocks and 32 steals. They are hustling on the defensive end and, with the emergence of Jeremy Lin, it has produced complete games by the New York Knicks.

These efforts were on display last night when they held the Lakers to 39 percent shooting.

The Lakers may have been tired from playing an overtime game the night before against the No Holds Barred Celtics, and Pau Gasol may be distracted by his All-Star Game snub. However, the Knicks played hard on both sides of the ball. There were many key plays on the defensive side that allowed the Knicks to maintain their grip on the lead—especially when the Lakers were making their run for the comeback.

Plays such as Steve Novak stealing the ball from Pau Gasol, Landry Fields diving on the floor after the lose ball that led to a foul on Matt Barnes, Bill Walker taking Metta World Peace out of his game, trapping Kobe Bryant effectively and having it lead to a foul on Troy Murphy. Also, Landry Fields ensuring that there was a hand in Kobe Bryant's face the entire night.

However, the most important defensive plays came against Andrew Bynum.   

Tyson Chandler replicated his efforts against the Lakers in the postseason and shut down Andrew Bynum. Bynum will always grab rebounds. However, Chandler and co. held him to three points—his lowest output all season.

Shutting down Bynum was the key to the victory as it forced Kobe to try and do everything himself. The Lakers' in-and-out game was completely neutralized by the play of Tyson Chandler, Jared Jeffries and Steve Novak. Bynum's travel violation was a perfect depiction of how the Knicks had Bynum playing to their tune. He only had one field goal the entire night.

We will have to wait and see if "The Jeremy Lin Show" will continue. The Knicks and the Garden fans should continue to enjoy it. In the meantime, they should continue to play hard on defense and do all of the little things that do not show up on the stat sheet.