5 most memorable Jeremy Lin ‘Linsanity’ Knicks moments
By James Ryder
No. 2 – 38 At The Garden
Date: Feb. 10th, 2012 (Los Angles Lakers @ Knicks)
No Amar’e Stoudemire. No Carmelo Anthony. It was like that for most of Linsanity, but this game it became especially obvious.
The Los Angeles Lakers were in town, a franchise and a roster that was among the best of the best in the NBA. A big reason for that was of course the presence of the late great Kobe Bryant. Going into this game, Bryant was asked about the young point guard that was the talk of the sports world. He had nothing to say because he wasn’t very familiar with the topic in question.
“Who is this kid?” Kobe asked. “I’ve heard about him, but what’s he doing?” Recently, Lin was asked what he thought about Bryant’s comments prior to that faithful game.
"“I was already in the zone and had three good games, and I grew up being a Warriors fan in the Bay Area, so we did not like the Lakers and did not like Kobe,” Lin recalled. “And then he extra-gassed me by what he said before the game. I felt slighted and disrespected, and all those things put me in a place of, I’m going for it tonight.”"
The rest was history. There is a reason HBO is calling the documentary “38 At The Garden.” Enough said, right? Well, he also tallied seven assists, four rebounds, and two steals. Oh, and he hit clutch shots again, including an acrobatic reverse layup around Pau Gasol and a pair of free throws all within the final three minutes. The win was the Knicks’ fourth straight.
Final statline: 38 points, 7.0 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 2.0 steals