Jeremy Lin: Deron Williams Exposes Linsanity's Defensive Issues in Knicks Defeat

Here's a fun set of Linsanity-related stats for you New York Knicks enthusiasts out there.

25.7 points and 9.2 assists.

No, those aren't Jeremy Lin's numbers since Mike D'Antoni threw him into the fire against the New Jersey Nets 10 games ago, though Lin has averaged 24.6 points and 9.2 assists of his own over that span.

Rather, the aforementioned stats are those posted collectively by opposing point guards since the Knicks first embraced Linsanity, including the 38 points and six assists that Deron Williams stung them for on Monday night.

Coincidence? I think not.

You can criticize Lin's offensive game all you want—the turnovers, the inconsistent jump shot, the apparent inability to do much of anything on the left side of the floor—but if there's any facet of his game that must improve for New York to continue its surge up the standings, it's his performance on defense.

Williams is the only truly elite point guard that Lin has yet faced, though he's not the only to score more than 20 points on the Knicks' sensation. Jose Calderon burned Lin for 25 points in that thrilling game against the Raptors last week and John Wall posted 29 of his own when the Knicks were last in Washington.

And the going only figures to get tougher for Lin on defense from here on out. The Knicks have 15 games left on their schedule against teams with point guards who average at least 14.8 points per game.

Which means that Lin will be left to guard guys capable of going off for big nights nearly every other time out for the rest of the season, not including the two remaining games against Calderon's Raptors.

That, on top of the fact that New York sports one of the toughest schedules going forward after going 16-17 through the softest first half of any team in the NBA.

In other words, the Knicks are either going to have find a way to mask Lin's defensive deficiencies or get him to play better on the ball if they're going to parlay this current spurt of excitement into legitimate postseason contention.

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