The Charlotte Hornets have lost its latest game against the Washington Wizards on December 19 and were now toting a 15-11 win-loss record, which is good for the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference.
Charlotte is one of the 11 teams in the East with a record of .500 or better, which really shows how competitive and well-balanced the squads are, especially when compared to the Western Conference, where only six teams have winning records.
Despite the recent loss to the Washington Wizards, a 109-101 drubbing at the Verizon Center in Washington, it was actually the previous victory of the Hornets over the visiting Toronto Raptors at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte that stuck to the minds of the fans, particularly those of Jeremy Lin.
It was actually the game where Jeremy Lin showed the best semblance of his Linsanity days playing for the New York Knicks about four years ago that stuck to the mind of the fans of Charlotte as they defeated the gritty Raptors with a 109-99 pounding in overtime.
The 27-year-old guard from Harvard dropped a season-high 35 points against the Raptors and along with the 27 points from point guard Kemba Walker, they actually scored more than half of the Hornets’ total team scoring output.
A breakout game
In a post-game interview following the win over the Raptors, Jeremy Lin said that he has been wanting to do it for a long time but never had the opportunity to do so.
Lin was able to start against the Raptors when starter Nicholas Batum could not play because of an illness that took him out during a loss at the hands of the Orlando Magic on December 16.
It was a breakout game for Jeremy Lin, especially with the fact that three of the Hornets starters are out on sick bay including Batum, Al Jefferson, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
Indicative of how his game showed traces of his Linsanity days while playing for the Knicks, his total output was just three points shy of his career high of 38 points, which he also did while playing for New York, notes SB Nation.
But Lin attributed his great effort to how well Kemba Walker is also playing for the Hornets. He said that he could not have done it without Kemba and that Kemba could not have also done it without him so it was a complementing game for both of them.
Jeremy said that Kemba helps him out as much as he hopes he can help him and they hope to build on the rapport in the next games as the Hornets set their sights on a playoff berth.
Not a pretty win
Jeremy Lin poured in 18 of his 35 points in the first half as Charlotte took a 56-44 halftime cushion.
But the Raptors came alive in the third quarter, rallying from 16 points down. The Raptors were able to tie the game at 90-90 on DeMar DeRozan’s jumper with 26 seconds remaining in regulation, notes ESPN.
The Raptors had the chance to win it in regulation when DeRozan forced a turnover and he scampered down the front court before heaving a long jumper that went in. Unfortunately, the shot was nullified because a timeout was called right after the steal was completed.
It was the Hornets who took command in the extra period as they went on a 10-3 run over the final 1:07 in overtime and going 8 for 8 from the free throw line.
Charlotte Hornets head coach Steve Clifford said that it was a really good win for them. Though he said it was not pretty in the fourth quarter but he really saw that they had a lot of guys who made a lot of good plays down the stretch.
With the victory of the Hornets over the Raptors and Lin’s role in that impressive win, critics are now starting to focus on the 27-year-old five-year NBA player and it would be interesting if he can keep up his same level of play, playing as a starter or be inconsistent and play below par and become the subject of criticisms again.
Based on his post-game interview, it seems that Jeremy Lin is enjoying the moment and being given the opportunity to play a lot of minutes. He actually played more than 40 minutes during the game against the Raptors, his first for the Hornets and it seems that Coach Clifford would be more than happy to give him more playing time if he can sustain his level of play that he showed in their game against the Raptors.
The 35-point performance of Lin also shackled premature notions that his scoring averages have been on a decline for the fourth year in a row.