In Thursday night’s preseason opener against the Detroit Pistons, a 101-94 win, Jeremy Lin scored 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor, 5-of-8 shooting from three, in 17 minutes.
That’s 15 points on 8 three-point attempts, and very little pick-and-rolls, which is Lin’s “bread and butter.” A great performance, in his Nets debut. Still, much of what people are talking about this morning is: The Layup.
Yup, that play. In a near-perfect debut, it’s all about the layup.
After the game, Lin talked mostly about how his 3-point shot was going down, how he didn’t “do much” in the pick-and-roll, and about how he and his teammates took a measured approach to “making a statement” during the National Anthem.
Lin knows he didn’t play a perfect game and has plenty of work to do, naturally, noting that he needed to be a better playmaker, play to his teammates’ strengths and, yes, play better on the defensive side of the ball.
Still, Lin played about as well as you could have hoped for in his first game as a member of the Brooklyn Nets. And if it’s the airballed layup we remember, so be it. But if you’re a Nets fan it was a positive opening night that simply can’t be marred by...man, he was wide open, wasn’t he?
After the game, Lin laughed it off, as noted by the Daily News. At that point, that’s about all you can do. Especially when you played much, much better than anyone could have expected.