TORONTO (AP) ― Linsane!
Jeremy Lin made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with less than a second to play to cap his finishing flurry of six straight points, and the New York Knicks rallied to beat the Toronto Raptors 90-87 Tuesday night, extending their winning streak to six games.
The NBA’s first American-Taiwanese player, Lin had 27 points and a career-high 11 assists in his first game since being named Eastern Conference player of the week.
The season-high crowd of 20,092 roared as Lin drained a pull-up jumper from the top with half a second to play, giving the Knicks their first lead since the opening quarter.
Toronto’s Rasual Butler airballed his attempt at the buzzer as the Knicks swarmed their newest hero at center court.
Amare Stoudemire returned from a four-game absence with 21 points and Tyson Chandler had 13 for New York.
Jose Calderon scored 25 points, Linas Kleiza had 15 points and 11 rebounds, and DeMar DeRozan scored 14 for the Raptors.
Up 75-66 to start the fourth, Toronto widened its lead with a three-point play by Barbosa before the Knicks stormed back with a 10-0 run, cutting it to 78-76 and forcing the Raptors to call timeout with 6:22 remaining.
Kleiza stopped the run with a driving layup, Amir Johnson added a hook shot and, after Lin made one of two from the line, Barbosa’s layup made it 84-77 with 4:49 to go.
Toronto led 87-82 with less than two minutes to go when Iman Shumpert stole the ball from Calderon and drove in for an uncontested dunk. After a missed shot, Lin completed a three-point play, tying it at 87 with 1:05 left.
Barbosa missed a 3 for Toronto and, at the other end, Shumpert missed a jumper but Chandler grabbed the rebound. Lin took the ball near midcourt and let the clock run down to 5 seconds before driving and pulling up against Calderon to launch the decisive shot, touching off the latest instance of Linsanity.
The Raptors had a photo of Lin on their team website in the hours before the game, and his visit generated major interest among Toronto’s Asian community, estimated at over 280,000 people, or more than 11 percent of the local population.
Miami 105, Indiana 90
San Antonio 99, Detroit 95
Chicago 121, Sacramento 115
Oklahoma City 111, Utah 85
Memphis 93, Houston 83
Denver 109, Phoenix 92
Washington 124, Portland 109
LA Lakers 86, Atlanta 78
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com


