As of March 21, the Los Angeles Lakers are toting a 17-50 win-loss record, which is second worst in the Western Conference and the fourth worst in the NBA. The team has 15 games remaining before it wraps up and write off a forgettable season.
But instead of merely going through the motions and play through the obviously no-bearing games, the Lakers are putting some stakes on it by experimenting and challenging Jeremy Lin to show his true worth in the basketball court.
Byron Scott apparently will be re-inserting Jeremy Lin as the Lakers’ starting point guard in the team’s last 10 games. The idea is to see if the Harvard graduate will show the aggressiveness and consistency that he has been showing since the All-Star break.
His performance in the Lakers’ last 10 games would determine whether the team would still re-sign him after his contract expires during the offseason or let him go to the free agency market.
Going to Lin’s favor
The 10-game test for Jeremy Lin seems to go on his favor somehow since seven of the last 10 games of the Lakers will be played at its home floor.
The last 10 games of the Los Angeles Lakers scheduled from March 30 to April 15 will pit them against eight different teams, since they will battle it out two teams twice.
Of these eight teams, three are playoff bound while the five others are destined to the lottery just like the Lakers. From March 30 until the season wrap, the Lakers shall be facing the Sixers, the Pelicans, the Blazers, the Clippers twice, the Nuggets, the Timberwolves, the Mavericks, and the Kings twice.
They have a clear shot in winning on six of the last 10 games so if Jeremy Lin stays aggressive, this test might be the perfect opportunity for him to prove to the Lakers that he is worth the purple and gold uniform and the team would benefit in re-signing him for the next season.
Playing aggressive
The 26-year-old point guard has been coming off the bench for Ronnie Price after Lakers coach Byron Scott relegated him to second stringer for his sub-par performance during the first half of the season.
He was even benched by Scott one game for not playing on the coach expectations and Lin has since began playing very aggressive, reminiscent of his Linsanity days in New York Knicks, some four seasons ago, minus the superb explosiveness.
But his effort has been paying off as Lin has improved his overall season averages to 10.8 points, 4.7 assists, and 2.5 rebounds per game.
He has also impressed Scott when he played through an ailing back during the game against the Utah Jazz on March 19, which the Lakers lost again, 80-73, their fourth straight defeat. He was obviously hurting and struggling all game long but he was very aggressive on the floor, which got a thumbs up from the Lakers head coach.
If Lin continues his kind of aggressive play in the next 15 games of the Lakers, especially during the last 10 games, where he is being tested, he will definitely pass it with flying colors.