Rob Carr/Getty Images - Second-year player Jeremy Lin has his way with the Wizards at Verizon Center on Wednesday night, continuing his recent stretch of superb play.
John Wall hunkered down into his defensive stance, looking over his shoulder for New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler. Trying to anticipate a screen, the Washington Wizards point guard jumped back as Knicks counterpart Jeremy Lin did a crossover dribble. And before Wall could turn his head, Lin was already blowing past him toward a wide-open lane.
Jordan Crawford and Maurice Evans stood frozen as Lin dunked and screamed with such excitement that the bandage on his chin came loose.
In less than a week, Lin has gone from being a former Harvard standout, cut by two NBA teams, to an unlikely phenomenon for the Knicks. In Wednesday night’s 107-93 win over the Wizards, Lin brought his inspiring story and surprisingly efficient game to Verizon Center, where a pro-Knicks crowd ignored the fact that its team was missing its all-star duo, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, and responded with glee to Lin’s every dish and basket.
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.”
The Wizards did little to satisfy their coach, as the Knicks obliterated them in the pick-and-roll, with Lin repeatedly finding cutters to the basket or shooters camped out — often wide-open — on the wings. Chandler benefited from several of the passes, as he scored a season-high 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Steve Novak came off the bench to connect on five three-pointers and finish with 19 points. Reserve Iman Shumpert had 17 points and Landry Fields added 16 as the Knicks (11-15) won their third in a row — the last two coming without Stoudemire, whose brother was killed in a car accident on Monday, or Anthony, who suffered a strained right groin in the first quarter of a victory against Utah later that day.
“I always expect to do better. It doesn’t matter who you are playing against. Right now, after this, after this game, I wish they would’ve played,” Wittman said of Stoudemire and Anthony. “We got beat off the dribble a lot. And we had fouls in reaching instead of moving our feet. They were the aggressors that had us on our heels from a defensive standpoint.”
Wittman said he didn’t think his players overlooked the undermanned Knicks. “Oh, gosh. You know I hope not. If they do, shame on us.”
Wizards forward Trevor Booker said during Wednesday morning’s shoot-around that since his team lost to New York by three points last month in a game that featured Stoudemire and Anthony, the rematch without them was a contest “we should win.”
Considering the Wizards (5-21) didn’t have Andray Blatche (left calf strain) or Rashard Lewis (sore right knee) and have already lost to Chicago without Derrick Rose, Boston without two all-star starters, Toronto without Andrea Bargnani and Houston without Kevin Martin, it’s difficult to think of many nights when they should feel like the superior team.
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