Jeremy Lin Can't Keep Up Torrid Pace with New York Knicks

Jeremy Lin has taken the sports world by storm.

The New York Knicks point guard burst on to the scene after his 25 points off the bench helped lead the Knicks to a 99-92 win over the New Jersey Nets on February 4th.

Ever since that night, Lin has been a lightning rod for basketball fans.

Sure, every season there are players who have breakout seasons. But it isn't often, if ever, that that player would be a Chinese-American and Harvard graduate.

With his good play continuing over the Knicks' subsequent four games, some are believing he can be a star player in the NBA for a while.

Of course, there's the opposite side of the spectrum with people who are sick and tired of Lin and are just waiting for him to fail and fall into obscurity.

As is usually the case with these kind of extremes, the truth is somewhere in the middle. That truth is something that may reveal itself in the coming weeks.

What is lost in all the Linsanity is the fact that the teams the Knicks have faced are not that good defensively.

There's no disputing Lin's performance against the Los Angeles Lakers, but outside of that game, New York has faced the 26th, 23rd, 25th and 16th-ranked defenses in terms of scoring.

Games with Atlanta, Dallas, Toronto, New Orleans and Miami, all of whom have scoring defenses in the top half, loom ahead for New York.

It's one thing to have good performances against bad defenses, but it's another to prove yourself against the better ones in the league.

In addition, sooner or later, Lin is going to have to deal with both Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire as a part of the lineup.

There's obviously only one ball to go around for New York, so it could become a real difficulty for New York to keep those two happy, especially Anthony.

Both have been out for much of Linsanity, with Anthony nursing a strained right groin and Stoudemire having left following the death of his brother.

When they do return, Lin may have to embrace a role as much more of a facilitator rather than a scorer.

If Anthony and Stoudemire don't do it, then opposing teams will.

The more Lin plays, the more opportunity there is to see exactly what his flaws are and how to stop him.

It would be an insult to Lin to say his recent run has been simply through smoke and mirrors rather than sheer talent, but it's difficult to see teams not finding a way to stop him.

He doesn't have the kind of athleticism of Chris Paul or Derrick Rose, so Lin may find it increasingly harder to continue getting to the basket the way he does.

Also, his shooting ability has to come into question. When you look at his shot charts, he really seems to struggle when left out on the perimeter.

If he's going to be a successful point guard, Lin needs to find another option when opposing defenses shut down his runs to the basket.

Regardless of whatever future struggles Lin will have, Linsanity will probably live on forever.