The happiest man in New York was prodigal son Jeremy Lin, who silenced the Garden crowd with a 22-point, 8-assist performance that put an emphatic end to the Knicks’ unbeaten record at home. James Harden (28 PTS, 10 REB, 3 AST, 2 STL) was terrific and the entire Rockets team was far more energetic than in their dull loss the day before in Toronto. Carmelo Anthony (ankle) sat out another game, and while rookie PF Chris Copeland scored a career-high 29, many of them came in garbage time and Melo was definitely missed. Tyson Chandler grabbed 18 boards but scored just 8 points, and Raymond Felton (14 PTS, 4 AST) took a back seat to Lin all night. New York shot 9-31 from 3-point range; that’s just 29% from a team averaging over 40% for the season.
Other December 17 Games
SAS @ OKC: What a night for Serge Ibaka. 25 points, 17 rebounds, 3 blocks and he didn’t have to fight Stephen Jackson, who was fined $25,000 for threatening him on Twitter, where everyone’s a 140-character tough guy. Jaxx (5 PTS, 4 REB) returned ahead of schedule from his broken finger, in part to help guard Kevin Durant. KD (19 PTS, 6 REB, 4 AST, 3 BLK) still had a good game, with Russell Westbrook (22 PTS, 9 AST, 6 REB, 3 STL) and Ibaka picking up any slack. Kevin Martin (20) and Nick Collison (8 PTS, 10 REB) led the second unit. For the Spurs, Nando De Colo (14 PTS, 6 AST) filled in capably as sixth man for injured Manu Ginobili (deep quad bruise) as the starters watched the fourth quarter from the bench.
MIN @ ORL: It said here yesterday that Kevin Love against Glen Davis is a mismatch, but I underestimated Big Baby (28 PTS, 5 REB, 2 STL) who hit 13 of 17 shots. Love (23 PTS, 15 REB, 3 STL) did bounce back from two poor shooting games, and Nikola Pekovic double-doubled (19 & 12), but Orlando’s sophomore C Nikola Vucevic (14 PTS, 11 REB, 2 BLK) held his own against Pek. As happens intermittently with all NBA rookies, Alexey Shved had an off-night, missing 7 of 8 FG attempts and committing four turnovers. In his second appearance after major knee surgery, Ricky Rubio went scoreless in 16:28 with 3 TO; he will get scheduled rest tonight as he’s not ready yet for back-to-back games. The Magic guards were the difference — Arron Afflalo (13 PTS, 5 REB) was strong defensively, Jameer Nelson had 12 assists and they got 18 PTS and 7 AST from sixth man J.J. Redick.