A capacity crowd packed Madison Square Garden to watch second-year phenom Jeremy Lin. And the Sacramento Kings themselves became spectators in a 100-85 laugher against the New York Knicks. In victory, the Harvard grad carved the Kings like a Thanksgiving turkey and extended Knicks win streak to seven straight.
Lin finished with only 10 points, but dished out 13 assists, many of which resulted in open dunks. Landry Fields scored a team high 15 points for a well-balanced Knicks attack that saw seven players finish in double figures.
Sacramento was paced by 19 points and five assists from Tyreke Evans. The Kings have now lost three in a row after their emotional victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder last week and fall to 10-19 on the season.
Notes and Analysis
- John Salmons struggles continue. The veteran wing scored just two points in 21 minutes, shooting one-for-five from the field and missing all three of his 3-point attempts. Salmons has scored a total of 16 points over his last five games, hitting only seven of his 31 shot attempts (23 percent) over that stretch.
- Jason Thompson had a sub-par game, scoring one point and grabbing just four rebounds in nearly 30 minutes.
- Jeremy Lin served up 13 assists, but continued to turn the ball over at an alarming rate. Lin finished with six turnovers in 26 minutes of action.
- There was a Travis Outlaw sighting tonight for the Kings. Desperate to slow down Lin, coach Smart threw everything, including the kitchen sink at Knicks point guard. Outlaw played effective defense and hit four-for-five from the field on his way to a nine point night.
- Chuck Hayes played just eight minutes and 45 seconds for the Kings. After missing most of camp with a heart ailment then dislocating his left shoulder early in the season, Hayes appears to be sliding down Smart’s depth chart.
- The Kings struggled to get an offensive flow against the Knicks, handing out just 15 assists tonight. At one point in the fourth quarter, Lin had more assists than the entire Kings roster.
- On an encouraging note, the Kings turned the ball over only nine times.
- Rookie guards Isaiah Thomas and Jimmer Fredette both saw upwards of 24 minutes. Thomas had a late flurry of baskets in scrub time and finished with 14 points and four assists. Jimmer, playing in his home state of New York for the first time, scored eight points on two-for-five shooting.
- Hassan Whiteside, the Kings 2010 second round pick, saw his first action of the season. The lengthy seven-footer blocked a shot in four minutes of action – a minute total that doubled his previous high for a season.
- Stat of the Night: The Kings starters shot only 35 percent on the night (19-for-54). In contrast, the Knicks starters hit 62.5 percent (25-for-40) of their shots.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
