By JOSH NEWMAN
Special to ZAGSBLOG
With the Knicks now making their first round series with the Miami Heat at least a little interesting by stealing Game 4 and avoiding elimination on Sunday afternoon, the attention has turned to a possible Jeremy Lin return when the series moves back to South Beach for Game 5 on Wednesday evening.
People may be hoping Lin can somehow save the day like he saved the early part of this truncated, 66-game season, but judging from Mike Woodson on Monday morning, you have probably seen the last of Jeremy Lin this season.
On a conference call with reporters, the Knicks’ interim head coach would not entirely rule out Lin, who has been out since March 24 with a slightly torn left meniscus, but he wasn’t exactly sounding confident, either.“I’m not counting on Jeremy Lin to play,” Woodson said. “I’ve watched him shoot and run up and down and he’s not in great shape.”
With those words, Woodson told everyone what they probably already knew, but refused to believe at this point. People want Lin to save the season, but he’s very likely not even 100 percent. Lin had knee surgery on April 2 for the meniscus tear with a timetable for a return set at six weeks. Monday’s conference call marked five weeks to the day of the surgery.
Woodson confirmed multiple times on Monday morning that while he would like Lin to play and bring some stability to the point guard position, the decision would ultimately be up to the doctors and Lin.
“We’ll do some 3-on-3 work with him today, scrimmage [Tuesday] up and down and again, I’m going as if he’s not going to play,” Woodson said. “That’s how it’s been here for the last month, and that’s how I’m preparing.”
Depending on how you look at it, this may be for the best. At the height of Linsanity just before the All-Star break with the Heat blazing through all comers, they held Lin to 1-for-11 shooting, eight points, eight turnovers and a minus-19 rating. Now take those stats and remember that Lin would be thrown in there in a playoff elimination game on the road coming off knee surgery. In short, suiting up for Game 5 is not the greatest idea.
Point guard has been a problem before Linsanity began on Feb. 4 and it’s been a problem since he got hurt on March 24. With a variety of injuries, Baron Davis did a very admirable job at the point since Lin got hurt, but now Davis himself faces uncertainty after a gruesome dislocated right kneecap ended his season and possibly his career on Sunday.
Mike Bibby is in the twilight of a standout career and Toney Douglas has long fallen out of favor with Woodson.
Bibby, who Woodson clearly trusts, will start on Wednesday evening while Woodson would not commit to Douglas in any fashion. It seems likely though that Woodson will have to look his way on the bench at some point Wednesday unless he goes big with either Carmelo Anthony or J.R. Smith at the point, which Woodson says is a possibility depending on how he Heat decide to attack.
After Davis went down on Sunday, Bibby hit arguably his biggest shot of the season, a 3-pointer from the left baseline with 1:23 to go that gave the Knicks an 84-81 lead. Woodson’s unwavering trust in Bibby goes back to the duo’s time with the Atlanta Hawks together, which culminated in a 53-win season in 2009-10.
“I’m very comfortable with him. Bibby’s had a hell of a career in our league, he’s run a lot of basketball teams and he’s been pretty good at it,” Woodson said. “He’s not as fast and crafty as he used to be, but he’s still capable, in short minutes, of running a basketball eam. Sometimes it doesn’t look pretty, but he’s still capable of hitting some big shots.”
