After placing a hard cap on Jeremy Lin's playing time the past few games, head coach Byron Scott unleashed a bit of Linsanity in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's 113-105 overtime loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at BMO Harris Bradley Center.
Lin finally had a chance to get out of Scott's doghouse after getting crunch-time minutes in a hard-fought battle with the up-and-coming Bucks. After averaging less than 25 minutes the last five games, the former Harvard standout logged 30 minutes and tallied 11 points and 6 assists.
Although it was another ugly shooting night for Lin (2-for-12 from the field), he nevertheless came through with several clutch plays - including a big three-pointer late - down the stretch to at least give the Lakers a fighting chance in winning the game at the end.
Via Jacob Rude of NBA Fansided:
"Lin had a handful of nice plays in the fourth quarter, including a couple of assists to Carlos Boozer to help keep the Lakers ahead. Despite his putrid shooting night (2 of 12 from the field), Lin was effective and looked in control for most of the game, an area of the game he has struggled with this season."
Scott, who has publicly criticized Lin's inconsistent performance this season, had some nice words for his point guard for putting much better effort on both ends of the floor.
Scott very complimentary of Lin. Liked the way he got Lakers into offense, and "did some good things" on D. Went with Lin over Clarkson late
— Bill Oram (@billoram) February 5, 2015
The 26-year old Lin is averaging 10.4 points and 4.7 in at least 25 minutes per game in his first and perhaps lone season with the Lakers.
With trade deadline just around the corner, there are speculations that Lin could be dealt to another team by February 19. However, Sean Deveney of Sporting News stressed the Lakers would likely stick with the Asian-American star for the remainder of the season, because of the weak market for the point guard.
Lin is pocketing $15M ($8M against the salary cap) in the final year of the three-year, $25M deal he signed with the Houston Rockets in 2012.
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