COLUMN: My Prelinctions, I mean, predictions
His name is Jeremy Lin, and he plays basketball.
I start things off like this because there is no way I could possibly sum up a play on his name that hasn’t already surfaced in the past two weeks.
Now, you may not know a lot about Lin, if you don’t pay much attention to national sports. I’ll sum it up for you. He is a 23-year old Asian-American basketball player from Palo Alto, Calif., who plays for the New York Knicks. There is an important catch here, though.
His game is ill. Like, crazy ill.
The newly found hard-court sensation wasn’t even on the Knicks full roster — slumming along in the NBA Developmental League — only a couple weeks ago and was only brought up to fill spots lost due to injury. And what has he done since?
Hold on to your hat, because it gets downright nutty. Lin has averaged over 27 points in his first five career starts, including a beyond breakout game, dropping a cool 38 points on the Los Angeles Lakers.
Top that off with an average of 8.8 assists a game and sealing the deal with a last-second 3-point shot to beat the Toronto Raptors. And we have — not even near arguably — quite a story for the stand-up son of Gie-Ming and Shirley Lin.
In all of this raucous of excitement and basketball craze, the journalist inside of me can only wonder what comes next. This is why I am taking the risk of predicting Lin’s performance in his next three games. I call them my “prelinctions.”
Friday – New York Knicks vs. New Orleans Hornets
Now, this causes quite a conundrum for the Lin experts out there. You see, the Hornets pose no strong defensive threat for Lin, with no real push at point guard, and two main big men who don’t really gather the greatest defense at the rim, which is where Lin has done most of his bidding.
The issue at hand is the return of Carmelo Anthony, who has been the main scorer for New York in the past year. Lucky for the Knicks, Lin is as good a facilitator as he is a scorer. Welcome to double-double country.
Prelinction: 18 points, 14 assists, Knicks win by 12.
Sunday – New York Knicks vs. Dallas Mavericks
The Mavericks only have one true point guard in Jason Kidd, but have the throng of big men who can keep Anthony and Amare Stoudemire quite subdued. This ought to give Lin a little room to shine, especially in the early going.
Here’s the kicker though. The Knicks will lose this game, their first loss in eight games as some impressive step-up defense by Dallas will tone down the hype as the game winds down. Big points, small result.
Prelinction: 31 points, 7 assists, Knicks lose by six.
Monday – New York Knicks vs. New Jersey Nets
This game will be a new scenario for Lin as his first rematch as a starter. He started off his run against Deron Williams and the nasty Nets just over a week ago and dropped 25, 7 assists and five rebounds top kickoff the nationwide “Linsanity Tour.”
This time things will be different for Lin, though. In fact, they will be better. The Knicks have their big men back at the helm to open up the court, coupled with Lin’s first experience dealing with a loss as a well-known player. No holds barred. Expect the playmaker to make plays as he keeps the hype rolling, triple-double style even.
Prelinction: 29 points, 13 assists, 11 rebounds. Knicks win by 11.
– Steve Schwartzman is a junior majoring in communication studies. He has had just about every job in sports writing, including blogs, analysis, statistics and fantasy football tips, but especially loves making bold picks. Think you can outpick Steve? Let him know: steve.schwartzman@aggiemail.usu.edu.