Jeremy Lin: Knicks Must Manage Linsanity's Minutes for Tough 2nd-Half Stretch

Can you pick out the most important number from Jeremy Lin's loaded stat line against the Dallas Mavericks?

No, it's not the 28 points, 14 assists, five steals or seven turnovers, though those are all lovely digits that speak to the legitimacy of the New York Knicks' newest point guard.

I'm talking instead about 46, as in the number of minutes Lin played on Sunday.

To be sure, the Knicks needed Lin on the floor for every one of those minutes as they fought their way back from a 12-point deficit in the third quarter and battled the defending champions until the final buzzer.

But that's still a ton of minutes to put on Lin's legs in one game. If the Knicks don't do a better job parceling out the kid's playing time, the rejuvenated fans at Madison Square Garden may be in store for the flame-out of Linsanity much sooner than anyone wants or expects. 

Sunday's total was the largest of Lin's career, though it was hardly an outlier for the Harvard grad since he exploded onto the scene just over two weeks ago. Only once since February 4th has Lin logged fewer than 36 minutes in a game—26 minutes against the Sacramento Kings this past Wednesday—a stat rendered all the more startling by the fact that his season-high prior to the month of February had been 20 minutes of garbage time against the Houston Rockets.

We're not talking about just any minutes here, folks. We're talking about high-impact, high-intensity minutes, the sort that could drain even the youngest of legs and the savviest and most experienced of NBA veterans.

Most of those minutes were logged against middling competition (i.e. the New Jersey Nets, the Washington Wizards, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Toronto Raptors, the New Orleans Hornets).

Imagine what might happen when New York's schedule really gets tough, as it did with the Mavs in town on Sunday. Out of the 35 games remaining on the Knicks' slate, 21 are against teams that currently have winning records, including three games apiece against the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat and two apiece against the Miami Heat, the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers.

This, after playing the league's weakest schedule to date.

Chances are, then, that there will be many more 40-minute nights in store for Lin than sub-30-minute nights from here on out.

A distressing possibility to be sure, considering that:

A) Lin has never played more than 29 games in a given season, college or pro.

B) Lin's never logged the kinds of minutes against this level of competition.

C) The schedule is condensed, with little time for rest in between games.

That's not to say that Lin is bound to crash and burn before season's end or that the sky is soon to fall on MSG, as everyone expected would happen just before Linsanity took over the Big Apple.

Rather, the Knicks must be careful not to ride Lin too hard (or at least as hard as they have) if they're to continue their surge up the Eastern Conference standings over the second half of the season. Whether that means giving Iman Shumpert and Toney Douglas more minutes at the point, waltzing Mike Bibby's zombified corpse around the court more often and/or hiring a faith healer to get Baron Davis back in shape is obviously up to those who make such decisions.

For now, though, as great as Linsanity has been for revitalizing the Knicks this season, it may well prove to be too much of a good thing too soon if Mike D'Antoni doesn't find a way to temper Jeremy Lin's playing time going forward.

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