Jeremy Lin: Knicks PG Back on Track After Amazing Performance vs. Mavericks

It seems that Jeremy Lin has long forgotten about the worst game of his young career.

The Knicks point guard rebounded from Friday’s less-than-stellar performance against the Hornets by posting a career-high 14 assists against Dallas during Sunday's 104-97 win.

Prior to falling to New Orleans, the league’s second-worst team, the Knicks were riding a seven-game win streak, and much of that success could be attributed to Lin. Playing without Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks needed someone to step up, and they got the support they needed from the unlikeliest of players: an unproven reserve who played his college ball in the Ivy League.

Friday’s loss to the Hornets was New York’s first with Lin in the starting lineup, and during that effort, he committed a career-high nine turnovers—which is exactly what made Lin’s performance on Sunday so important. 

Often, when a young player gets his first taste of adversity, he seems to crumble under the pressure—but not so for Lin, as least considering his stat line against the reigning NBA champion Mavericks.

Lin set a new career high in assists, scored 28 points and helped the Knicks sustain an abundance of momentum swings en route to victory. If Lin was still dwelling on his poor performance two days earlier, it didn’t show—and if he was thinking about it at all, he was using it as motivation to get back on the right track.

He may be a second-year player, but Lin plays with the composure of a veteran, and that is precisely what makes him so valuable to New York.

Now, the Knicks know he can bounce back—and fast—from a bad game. They know he won’t let it mess with his head, like so many of his young contemporaries. Mike D’Antoni knows he can put the game in Lin’s hands during the third quarter of a game that seems to be slipping away, and he can emerge with a W.

We’d all be singing a very different tune if Sunday’s game had gone the opposite way, if Dirk Nowitzki & Co. had found a way to stop Linsanity from raging on.

But for now, after proving on Friday that he’s only human, Lin keeps on showing exactly what it its that makes him worthy of all the hype.