As the Houston Rockets come to town tonight to play the Warriors, a familiar face will be back with them on the court, as well.
Jeremy Lin, who returned from a six game absence last night due to a sprained knee sustained two weeks ago, logged 15 minutes and five points in a 111-104 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
According to RotoWorld, the Warriors should expect to see not only more minutes from Lin tonight, but more effective minutes when he returns to face the team he once started with early in his career.
“His knee sprain kept him out of the lineup since Nov. 27, so the he’ll get the built-in rust excuse here. Lin was excelling off the bench before going down, averaging 14.8 points, 4.0 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.0 triples on 51.3 percent from the field in eight outings this season. Things should get better on Friday when he takes on the Warriors”
Though the hype and days of “Linsanity” are gone (or at the least much less prevalent), Lin continues to quietly produce on a Rockets team that already features several stars such as James Hardin and Dwight Howard.
Lin’s production off the bench, though, is leading some writers to push him for a possible Sixth Man of the Year candidate, as Tim Keeney blogged just a day ago.
“Prior to the injury, Lin was playing the best basketball of his career, shooting a career-high 50.3 percent from the field, 39.0 percent from beyond the arc and 80.5 percent from the charity stripe. His assists have been down, but that’s because he has been inserted into the perfect role”
As Keeny stated, “Linsanity is nothing but a distant memory, and that’s a good thing.”
Lin is taking more effective shots and making those at a much higher percentage.
“Now, Lin’s injury was never considered really serious, and by his own words, it sounds as though he’s back at 100 percent. The only real question is whether or not he can keep up this kind of offensive efficiency—his 64.1 true-shooting percentage is ninth in the NBA among players averaging at least 20 minutes, per NBA.com.”
Lin seems to understand his role and what he can and cannot do right now as he told CSN Houson’s Adam Wexler prior to Thursday night’s game.
“I feel good. I went through practice today,” Lin said. “Feeling good right now, no limitations.
I’ll be back (Thursday). I played today and everything’s fine. I’m full go, maybe in terms of a little conditioning.”
He then added jokingly, “Maybe not jumping that high off that right foot, but I never jumped that high on the right foot anyway.”
The Warriors will soon find out and hope that Lin doesn’t help the Rockets beat the Warriors the way they did a week ago.
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