Lin magic continues as Knicks win again
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New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin drives to the basket against Toronto Tuesday night.
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Jeremy Lin made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with less than a second to play to cap his finishing flurry of six points in a row, and the visiting New York Knicks rallied to beat the Toronto Raptors, 90-87, extending their winning streak to six games.
The NBA's first American-Taiwanese player, Lin had 27 points and a career-high 11 assists in his first game since being named Eastern Conference player of the week.
The season-high crowd of 20,092 roared as Lin hit a pull-up jumper with half a second to play, giving the Knicks their first lead since the opening quarter.
Toronto's Rasual Butler airballed his attempt at the buzzer as the Knicks swarmed their newest hero at center court.
Amare Stoudemire returned from a four-game absence with 21 points and Tyson Chandler had 13 for New York.
Jose Calderon scored 25 points, Linas Kleiza had 15 points and 11 rebounds, and DeMar DeRozan scored 14 for the Raptors.
Up 75-66 to start the fourth, Toronto widened its lead with a three-point play by Barbosa before the Knicks stormed back with a 10-0 run, cutting it to 78-76 and forcing the Raptors to call timeout with 6:22 remaining.
Kleiza stopped the run with a driving layup, Amir Johnson added a hook shot and, after Lin made one of two from the line, Barbosa's layup made it 84-77 with 4:49 to go.
Toronto led, 87-82, with less than two minutes to go when Iman Shumpert stole the ball from Calderon and drove in for an uncontested dunk. After a missed shot, Lin completed a three-point play, tying it at 87 with 1:05 left.
Barbosa missed a 3 for Toronto and, at the other end, Shumpert missed a jumper but Chandler grabbed the rebound. Lin took the ball near midcourt and let the clock run down to five seconds before driving and pulling up against Calderon to launch the decisive shot, touching off the latest instance of Linsanity.
First Published February 15, 2012 12:00 am
