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For the second game in a row, the Knicks faced a team determined to punish Jeremy Lin and end the winning streak. And again, the Knicks appeared to be out of it on multiple occasions, including at several points well into the fourth quarter. But like $100 Million Contract said in the thread, Iman Shumpert and Jeremy Lin (and some brilliant team-wide defense) just wouldn't let the Knicks lose. Shump picked up Jose Calderon after Lin had struggled to defend him in the first half and just slashed the tires on what had been a terrific individual performance. That effort-- pressuring Calderon's dribble and sticking with him on the move-- spearheaded much sharper, more aggressive D by the whole squad. The Knicks forced 9 turnovers and held the Raps to just 12 points in the fourth.

Know who else had 12 points in the fourth? Jeremy Lin. He'd spent much of the night forcing shots and turning the ball over in traffic (though he had a pretty decent line anyway), but just gritted his teeth and attacked in the fourth quarter, repeatedly scoring and drawing contact on the move. After missing some important free throws, Lin converted an absurd three-point play to tie the game, then, with the game tied and time winding down, he waited...and waited...and waited...and...

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So, uh, the Knicks just sucked and sucked and sucked until the fourth quarter when they played amazing defense and then Jeremy Lin drained a game-winning three-pointer. This is getting ridiculous.

Recap later!

Here's some fuzzy video if you missed the final possession:

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Good evening and happy Valentine's Day, friends! Apologies for a quiet day of posting. I was driving all morning and ranking power all afternoon, but I'm free now and more than ready to watch me some Knicks. Tonight, our Knicks are in Toronto to face the Raptors, who've won just one out of their last five games (though they've been close in most of those losses). Of course, those same Raptors beat the Knicks early in the season, though that was without Amar'e Stoudemire and Iman Shumpert (and Jeremy Lin).

This time, the Knicks will be without Carmelo Anthony (and Josh Harrellson. Miss u, Jorts), but they'll be getting Amar'e back after his trip to Florida to mourn the tragic death of his brother. I'm so very happy to have Amar'e back with the Knicks and am wetting my trousers with excitement over the prospect of Lin and Stoudemire running the pick-and-roll. I'm very interested to see if the spacing troubles Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler have had are at all remedied in the first outing with Lin handling the ball. This'll be fun.

The Raptors, I should mention, are without Andrea Bargnani, which means 1. He can't torch the Knicks. 2. We don't get to hear Clyde say "Barn-yar-ni" quite as much. It's a win and a loss.

This here's your thread to comment, and don't forget to check out Raptors HQ as well. As always, please refrain from posting photos, .gifs, illegal streams, and videos of iguana musicals in the thread. Tip-off's at 7. See you then!

Man oh man! Fresh off his Eastern Conference Player of the Week award, Jeremy Lin will be on the cover of the new issue of Sports Illustrated, which I believe comes out today. Seems cool. An SI person explains:

Terry McDonell, editor of the Sports Illustrated Group, said he had no qualms about putting Lin — who in five games has gone from benchwarmer to breakout star — on the cover.

"Jeremy Lin has done more in these past five games to captivate a fan base than any player in NBA history - and not just with his historic statistics," he said. "Look at what’s going on in this city."

I assume "what's going on in this city" refers to the fact that I've been walking around with a band-aid dangling from my chin and woke up with "JER" and "EMY" tattooed on each of my eyelids. The insides.

Meanwhile, the folks who wrote that Daily News article seem pretty worked up about the SI cover curse. I'm more upset that Jeremy got shafted from the cover of the Swimsuit Issue. Did Kate Upton have the best first four starts of all time and lead her short-handed team to an undefeated week while inspiring millions of people around the world? She did? Oh.

In closing, here's an opportunity for any of y'all to win some P&T points: 100 points for anybody who photographs Jeremy's SI cover. Another 100 points for anybody who figures out who the last Knick to be on the cover of SI was (ideally, not on a season preview cover). Note that you can trade in 1,000 P&T points for 100 P&T platinum points. 1,000 platinum points gets you your own P&T user account that allows you to comment and write Fanposts and stuff. Pretty elite.

I mentioned this in the mamphibitiles below, but it probably deserves its own post. After averaging 27.3 points, 8.3 assists, and several thousand spectator swoons per game, Jeremy Lin was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the week of February 6th to February 12th (also known as possibly the best week of my life as a Knicks fan).

Jeremy's unique path to P of the W makes the award particularly special. Check this out, via Ken Berger:

Jeremy Lin becomes the first player to earn player-of-the-week honors in NBA and D-League. Won it last season with Reno Bighorns.

That's pretty awesome. Like I said before (though, at the time, Lin's excellence had only lasted one game), no matter what happens with the returns of Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony and thereafter, we'll always have this week in which Lin almost single-handedly lifted the team to a perfect stretch of games. I've never seen anything quite like it.

Congratulations, Jeremy. So many congratulations. Can I kiss you? Ha ha, that's all right. I was just kidding anyway. Ha ha.

Good day, hams! The Knicks got back to practicin' today, and I have a few links and things to share by way of those who attended practice. Take the jump for 'em

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Recall that, the night before his breakout game against the Nets, Jeremy Lin slept over at Landry Fields's place. Landry, who apparently does not have a guest bedroom, set Jeremy up with a spot on his couch. Jeremy went on to drop 25 and 7 against the Nets, then got pushed into the starting lineup and, if I remember correctly, continued to have some pretty good games. This afternoon, Landry was kind enough to post a picture of the couch on the popular social networking site Twitter.com:

Now, it'd be easy to assume that the couch has magical, performance-enhancing powers like the sneakers in Like Mike. In fact, the couch is more like "Michael's Secret Stuff" in Space Jam. The couch, with its over-sized cushions and seven decorative pillows, seemed like it gave Jeremy the power to dominate games and seize the loving attention of the entire planet, but in fact...THE POWER WAS INSIDE JEREMY ALL ALONG.

Couch looks comfy as shit, though.

Because I was brief last night, I just wanted to toss out a few more idle thoughts and some links from elsewhere on the cyberweb. So, some things:

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Like DangerZone said, the Knicks just pulled off a heist in Minnesota. A badly short-handed lineup finally seemed to catch up to New York's performance, as they played from behind almost the whole way and looked out of it several times. But after Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic led the Timberwolves to 57 percent shooting, a massive rebounding advantage and an eight-point edge in the first half, a combination of tighter Knick defense and horrid Minnesota shooting prevented the Wolves from running away with the game in the second.

Jeremy Lin, looking visibly exhausted, played a solid first half but hit a wall in the second half against the best defense he's faced so far. Ricky Rubio and friends gave him all different looks, trapping him, forcing him left, and preventing him from getting clean attempts in the paint without giving fouls. They forced Lin into one-for-many shooting and a ton of turnovers in the latter two quarters, including a lot of nice drives that ended with short-armed shots or not enough lift to draw contact. Kid was beat, and he played like it.

In Lin's stead, the Knicks got massive contributions from Landry Fields and Iman Shumpert. Fields did wonderful things driving diagonally and finishing right at the rim in the first half. Shumpert, after bad shooting and boneheaded plays early on, came up with some massive drives and pull-up jumpers later on. His mismatched strip of Kevin Love followed by a pull-up jumper the other way was crucial, putting the Knicks up one with just a minute and change remaining.

Actually, in a game that got pretty hideous in both directions, the Knicks executed pretty nicely down the stretch. The Knicks fell back down by three following all that Shumping, but ran a perfect two-for-one possession with over 30 seconds left, as Lin hit Steve Novak for a spot-up three-pointer to tie it. After that, the Knicks hassled Ricky Rubio into consecutive turnovers, hit a couple of free throws (missed some, too), and benefited from a bad final shot by Kevin Love.

'Twas a surprisingly gritty end to a magical run of wins without Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. For once, the Knicks were on the winning end of a "tale of two halves" type game. Minnesota missed one big shot after another, and the Knicks hung around, hung around, hung around, then struck and snatched a win in the final two minutes. Definitely not familiar ground, but a welcome departure from what we're used to.

New York's got two much-needed days off before they play in Toronto with Amar'e back in the lineup. Rest up, gentlemen!

Not really sure how they managed to steal that one, but we'll take it! Much needed rest coming up.

(And a short recap, too, in a minute.)

Evening, pantaloons! Fresh off their monumental win over the Lakers, the Knicks are in Minnesota tonight to take on the Timberwolves. After the events of the last week, this is now billed as a battle between the league's two cuddliest point guards. Ricky Rubio and Jeremy Lin will face off in what promises to be a very exciting match-up, and the short-handed frontcourt will also have Kevin Love to handle around the floor and on the glass. The T-Wolves, by the way, have lost two straight games (including a home loss last night to the Mavericks) after winning three straight at the beginning of the month.

This thread is hungry for your comments during the game. Canis Hoopus-- perhaps my favorite SB Nation blog-- is a great place to visit for Minnesota coverage. As always, please refrain from posting photos, .gifs, illegal streams, and links to claymation snuff films in the game thread. Get 'em, Knicks!

Timberwolves?

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You could strap me down Ludovico-style and make me watch this and nothing else on repeat for the rest of my life and I don't think I'd get sick of it. Just putting this post together is taking me way longer than I should because I keep getting distracted and watching the video start to finish. I just watched it again in between typing the last sentence and this one.

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Tommy Dee of The Knicks Blog was kind enough to have me back in the SNY studios (even after the bidet incident last time) to talk about the Knicks. We talked about Jeremy Lin, Jeremy Lin, Toney Douglas, and Jeremy Lin. Thankfully, this was recorded yesterday afternoon, before Lin's streak hit another level entirely Friday night. If I had to do one of these, like, right now, I'd just spend the whole time crying, drooling and emitting incoherent squeaks while pantomiming one-handed passes and reverse lay-ups. Twelve hours and a night's sleep after the end of the Laker game, I'm still a mess.

Anyway, if you want to watch me ramble 'n' gush like a fool, take the jump. Thanks as always to Tommy for having me on.

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First of all, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHFHFHIOFHOIADHAOGOIGHAOHI!!!!!!

Moving on. This'll be a short recap (I think) in part because it's the weekend and I want to go celebrate and in part because I am completely dumbfounded. Like fuhry flossy in the post-game thread, I keep expecting the dream to end, but it still hasn't. It just keeps getting better and better.

If you missed tonight's game, 1. I feel terribly sorry for you. 2. Jeremy Lin, somehow, just kept building his legend, and this time he did it against an extremely physical defense with some towers in the paint. He finished with yet another career-high point total of 38 to go with seven assists, four rebounds, and two steals (six turnovers, too) and he did it in such a way that I no longer have a voice, which doesn't really matter because I am speechless.

After the jump, an insufficient summary of what Lin did, plus some quick individual breakdowns of the other Knicks to play and other details and stuff.

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I can't even think thoughts right now.

Keep commenting here!

Good evening, shrimpdads! Tonight promises to be fairly silly. The Knicks, looking for their fourth straight win, will face the Lakers on national television, with a substantial portion of the attention likely being devoted to Jeremy Lin. Lin, making his third start, will go up against the first above-average defense he's faced, as well as the biggest bigs who've ever tried to swat him in the paint. That's what a lot of folks were waiting to see from Lin, so that should be interesting.

But for us, this is just one more opportunity to see if these lovable short-handed Knicks can upset another team. They'll probably need their sharpest three-point shooting, and they'll definitely need some otherworldly interior defense and rebounding (without getting into foul trouble) from Tyson Chandler, Jared Jeffries and whoever else would like to lend a hand against Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. It's a longshot, but at least the Lakers played a close overtime game last night and might be tired or something.

Comment along in this thread if you're watching and check out the terrific Silver Screen and Roll for Lakers coverage. As always, please do not post photos, .gifs, illegal streams, or lunar travel brochures in the thread. Keep it light, keep it civil, and enjoy the game. May the magic continue!

Tip-off's at 8.

I was delighted to see Adam Zagoria focus on Steve Novak's crucial contributions to the Knicks' recent victories in an article today. Zagoria and Novak talked mostly about Jeremy Lin, but in praising Lin, Novak kind of touched on his own importance:

"I think you’re really starting to see our offense come together when we have that kind of penetration and that kind of finding guys," Novak said in crediting Lin, the rookie sensation from Harvard.

"And it’s contagious because other guys know, ‘I’m going to get the ball from him or I’m going to make the next pass because the next time down he’s going to find me again."

Novak's right, but in a way, he's got it backwards.

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My understanding is that Jeremy Lin jerseys have been pretty much impossible to come by this week. I know they were available at some point in MSG souvenir shops, but they sold out as quickly as fans got their greasy little paws on 'em. Though I expect they'll sell out again, today is the day to shop:

After legions of Knicks fans cried foul for days over the crushing absence of Jeremy Lin jerseys, city stores on Friday are slated to receive their first batch of gear emblazoned with the name of the NBA’s newest sensation.

"Obviously, New York is excited about Jeremy, and we’re going to give the fans what they want," said Modell’s spokesman Rich Lampmann.

Lin jerseys will be available at three Modell’s stores in midtown and at the Madison Square Garden souvenir shops.

Modell’s is pulling a batch of the jerseys off the production line early in order to satisfy the red-hot demand. They’ll be on sale at the Modell’s stores on W. 42nd St., E. 42nd St. and Broadway at W. 34th St.

Now, that's good news for prospective jersey-buyers, but we ought to acknowledge the ingenuity some Knicks fans showed in the interim. Lin-hacks if you will:

- I wish I could remember who it was, but somebody on Twitter said they were taping over their old Danilo Gallinari jersey (sorry Danilo. Still love you.) so that it read "GALLINARI". I assume they also added a (+9) to the number part on the front and back.

- This young gentleman made a minor edit to a Carmelo Anthony jersey and-- boom!-- Lin jersey.

- And then there's me. I took an old blue dress shirt, cut off the sleeves with a scythe (because that's how I do things), and detailed it with orange glitter paint. Then I wrote "NEW YORK KICKS BASKETBALLs GO NICKS" and "7TEEN" on the front and "JEREMY LIN LINSANITY!!!1 2012" and "KNIX 17" on the back. And now I don't have to go to Modell's. I'd be happy to print more if y'all are interested.

- I'm also selling Limited Edition Jeremy Lin Semi-Adhesive Wet Chin Band-Aids for $17 a piece. Act now or miss out!

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The All-Star reserves for both conferences were just announced. Here's the whole roster for the Eastern Conference from the SBN NBA page:

Dwyane Wade, Heat*
LeBron James, Heat*
Derrick Rose, Bulls*
Dwight Howard, Magic*
Carmelo Anthony, Knicks*
Joe Johnson, Hawks
Paul Pierce, Celtics
Andre Iguodala, 76ers
Deron Williams, Nets
Roy Hibbert, Pacers
Chris Bosh, Heat
Luol Deng, Bulls

Yeah. None of those people are Amar'e Stoudemire, which is probably reasonable. None of them are Tyson Chandler either, which seems less reasonable but, then again, it's kind of better for Amar'e and Tyson to get a long weekend to rest. So, as of right now, the Knicks' only two All-Star Weekend participants are Carmelo Anthony (if he's healthy enough to play) and Landry Fields (who'll be a Sophomore person).

Meanwhile, the word from internet personality Tas Melas is that there are rumors of Iman Shumpert being a Dunk Contest participant. I've no idea where that rumor comes from, but it's an odd one. Shump's a pretty silly athlete and we've seen plenty of good video of him dunking...but I'd estimate that he's like 4-10 on dunk attempts this year. He's tried some that would have been impressive, but converted very few.

But anyway, buns for Tyson and Amar'e, but also kinda not buns, too, you know?

Photo: Karunakar Rayker

Good afternoon, partypugs. The insanity surrounding Jeremy Lin (if only there was a word to describe that!) has not died down, so I'm afraid the majority of the links below will in fact be Lin-ks. It's getting a little tiresome-- EVERYBODY has to give their "take" on Lin. Did you know he went to Harvard?-- but at least the Knicks are getting positive national attention, right? Anyway, take the jump for some things to click on.

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Perhaps you may have noticed this, but there's actually a spot for you to buy Knicks tickets at Posting and Toasting. On the far right of the menu up top, there's a link that says "Tickets". If you click on it with your computer mouse, it'll take you to this page, which gives you all sorts of pictures and graphs and deals from all different ticket brokers. I imagine that might be of some use.

Don't go spending dollars (or chasing waterfalls) just yet, though, because TiqIQ would first like to offer you some free tickets. You just have to "like" TiqIQ and Posting and Toasting (feel free to "unlike" P&T soon thereafter if you'd rather not have my nonsense flooding your feed), post a quick thing about who your favorite player ever is (say Lee Nailon and you can also win a high five from me), and then I think you'll be in the running for free tickets to the Knicks-Nets game on Monday, February 20th.

As always, I am reluctant to put anything promotional on the front page unless there's an opportunity for some of y'all to win free stuff. If you'd like a shot at said free stuff, take the jump for the full instructions.

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The burgeoning legend of Jeremy Lin has become sort of an exercise in basketball hagiography. It feels like every game he plays produces a couple more anecdotes that attest to his brilliance, but also teach us something about, like, basketball in general, and maybe ourselves and the world and life and stuff. The aftermath of last night's game brought about two fun little moments to be added to Lin's ongoing tale:

1. Tyson Chandler admitted to having no idea Lin could dunk:

"I didn't know he could dunk," Chandler said. "When he was going in for a dunk I was like 'No Jeremy, just lay the ball up' and all of sudden he dunks it. I probably was just as excited as the crowd was."

"I was thinking after he dunked," he added, "for at least 20 seconds I was thinking, 'Did I know he could dunk?' I don't remember him dunking."

As Michael Katz makes clear in that blog post, Lin can dunk.

Moral: Don't judge a book by its cover! That book might just torch John Wall and throw down a tomahawk!

2. After the game, Ryan Wittman (a former Knick Summer Leaguer, by the way) texted his dad, Randy, to rub it all Lin.

After Lin finished with 23 points and a career-high 10 assists, Wizards Coach Randy Wittman had to absorb an equally painful text message from his son, Ryan, who played against Lin for four years in the Ivy League at Cornell.

"He told me that they did a much better job guarding him than we did tonight," Wittman said with an uncomfortable chuckle. "Makes Dad feel good."

Moral: Ryan Wittman is kind of mean to his dad!

Anyway, I think we might have to start collecting and organizing these anecdotes so that when the Legend of Lin is assembled, we can be responsible for the Knicks chapter.

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