All I Do is Lin, Lin, Lin!

You can bet Bryant knows who Jeremy
Lin is now.

The global phenomenon that is 'Lin-sanity' continued Friday.

With the 16-time NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in town, Jeremy Lin upstaged Kobe Bryant, something the 33-year-old veteran in not accustom to.

Lin has electrified the Madison Square Garden crowd lately, energizing an underachieving New York Knick team. Without superstars Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire, Lin led the Knicks to their fourth straight win, defeating Los Angeles, 92-85.

The 23-year-old Harvard graduate not only scored a career-high 38 points, but the most points scored by a New York player all season, that includes Anthony and Stoudemire.

Heading into Friday night's home game, Lin became the first player since LeBron James in 2003 to score 20-plus points and handout eight or more assists in his first two NBA starts. Despite falling an assist short of that against the Lakers, Lin is in elite company.

Lin's improbable run started less than a week ago in the team's 99-92 home victory over the New Jersey Nets. In that game, Lin played a then-career-high 36 minutes, sparking New York and scoring 25 points with seven assists.

Since that time Lin has started each of the team's next three games and scored a combined 89 points. That is the most by any NBA player in his three professional starts since the ABA-NBA Merger in 1976.

He is now averaging just 9.0 points and 3.5 assists per game this season, but has rejuvenated the Knicks in Anthony and Stoudemire's absence.

New York's improves to 12-15 on the year, bringing them within a half game of the Milwaukee Bucks, who behind Brand Jennings' 24 points defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime, for the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.

For Los Angeles, it was their 12th loss of the season and 10th away from Staples Center, ending their nine-game winning streak against the Knicks. After arguably the biggest road win of their season in Boston, the Lakers never got it going. A night after combining for 41 points and 31 rebounds, Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, scored just 19 points with 23 rebounds against a relatively undersized New York front court.

However, Bryant, as he always does, showed up.

Bryant, who averages 30.5 PPG in 'The Garden', second only to Michael Jordan's 31.8, scored 34 points, despite missing 10 of his first 11 shots, but added 10 rebounds.

It was just three years ago that Bryant had the Garden faithful chanting his name after setting the storied arena's single-game point record with 61 on 19-of-31 shooting.

Bryant was upstaged by someone nobody say coming. Lin is only the fourth player in NBA history to play in the league as a Harvard graduate and his Asian ethnicity makes him the ultimate underdog.

'Lin-sanity' is alive and well in the world's biggest city.

28,000 & Counting

Despite reaching the 28,000 point plateau,
it was a rough night for Bryant and Co.

After one of the worst shooting nights of his career, Los Angeles Laker guard Kobe Bryant still managed to have a historic evening Sunday in Denver.

Bryant became the youngest player in NBA history to accumulate 28,000 when his first of two free throws found the bottom of the net with 10:43 remaining in the third quarter. The now-16-year veteran took that honor from another Laker legend. Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was 34 years, 363 days old when he became the youngest player to reach the 28,000 point plateau, nearly two years older than Bryant's 33 years, 131 days.

With his latest accomplishment, it what has been, to say the least, a magical career, Bryant finds himself sixth on the all-time scoring list and 584 away points of tying former teammate Shaquille O'Neal for a spot in the top five, a mark he should reach later this year.

While Bryant still has a ways to go to top Abdul-Jabbar's mark of 38,387 total career points, the 6-foot-6 guard is arguably the greatest scorer in NBA history.

Bryant became the leading scorer in Lakers history when he passed Jerry West's total (25,192) in February of 2010. He would also become the franchise's leader in postseason points that same season, a record also held by West.

In March of 2007, Bryant had a stretch of four consecutive games where he scored 50 or more points in a single game. That is second only to Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain's seven game stretch during the 1961-62 season. Chamberlain accomplished that feat five times that season.

The 13-time All-Star has scored 50 points or more twenty-four times in his career, including five games of 60-plus points. The great Michael Jordan, who is the only other guard in NBA history to eclipse the 28,000-point total, also totaled five 60-point games in his career.

Most recently, Bryant saved his best for the bright lights of New York City, when he went off for 61 points on Feb. 2, 2009, in a game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Three years prior, on Jan. 22, 2006, Bryant put on a Chamberlain-esque performance, scoring 81 points at home against the Toronto Raptors. 55 of the points came in the second half.

As for Bryant's most recent game and first of the new year, it wasn't a thing of beauty.

Bryant missed his first five shots of the game and finished the half 1-for-10. Not to mention both of his first half offensive fouls as part of his six total turnovers on the game. Bryant finished the game with 16 points, shooting .214% (6-for-28) from the field.

Despite excellent play from Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, who combined for 38 points and 27 rebounds, Los Angeles came up short, 99-90. The loss coming at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers were playing their sixth game in eight days and Denver for the second time in as many nights.

This time Bryant's remarkable confidence stood in the way and his greatest strength became his greatest weakness.

New York Bound

Melo has reason to smile, he's headed home.

Carmelo Anthony finally got his wish and is headed home.

After months of speculation and anticipation, the four-time All-Star was traded in a 12-player deal to the New York Knicks late Monday night.


A Brooklyn native, Anthony went to the University of Syracuse and brought home their first National Championship in 2003.

After only a year in college, Anthony declared for the NBA Draft and was selected third overall by the Denver Nuggets. Since that time, Anthony has developed into one of the league's most prolific scorers and led the Nuggets in scoring seven of his eight seasons in Mile High.

The Knicks, one of the most decorated franchises in the NBA, have been irrelevant in the playoff picture much of past decade. With the signing of forward Amar'e Stoudemire to a five-year $100 million contract in the offseason, the Knicks have put themselves back on the map.

Now, with Anthony added to the mix, the Knicks have a formidable 1-2 punch in Madison Square Garden. The question is, are the Knicks an NBA Finals contender this year with Anthony?

The answer is simple, No. The Knicks have traded away most of their supporting cast to get Anthony and we all know with no depth, no team can contend for a title. The Knicks also need to improve their defense, something head coach Mike D'Antoni is notorious for not doing, especially during his time in Phoenix.

Stoudemire and Anthony are both known as offensive minded players defense and defensively liabilities. However, when they chose to play both sides of the ball, they can be extremely good defenders.

As for the the trade's immediate impact, the Eastern Conference just got that much harder though, for teams like the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Orlando Magic and their road to the NBA Finals. The Knicks may not be ready to contend for a NBA title just yet, but they have acquired a top five player in the league and pose an offense that can score at will.

Playoff basketball just got that much more interesting, it wouldn't be surprising if the Knicks upset one of the Eastern powerhouses in an early round of the postseason and if not beat them, force them deep into an intense series.

Basketball supremacy seems to be returning to Madison Square Garden, earlier than expected.