The New York Knicks suffered another tough loss to the Houston Rockets on Thursday night, as the team fell short right at the end despite a great performance from Carmelo Anthony and one of the reasons was the play of Jeremy Lin, who had 21 points in his return to Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks now have lost another game at home and Linsanity returned in a bit quieter form, as Lin scored 21 points with five rebounds and three assists in the game and after last season when he averaged 13.4 points, 6.1 assists and 1.6 steals, Lin is scoring more and he has had a great week, putting up over 30 points in each of the previous two games and clearly playing with Dwight Howard has helped quite a bit. Lin is averaging nearly 30 points over the past three games and with Patrick Beverley in the backcourt as well, the Rockets may have one of the best combinations in the league.
Lin had 31 against the Raptors and 34 against the Sixers and in both of those games he shot over 50 percent while playing over 40 minutes. The team is dealing with a tough situation with Omer Asik, but the play of Howard and Lin as well as Chandler Parsons has put the team in nice position in the west and now they were able to take another road victory and sent the Knicks into a bit of a tailspin after they got a win against the Atlanta Hawks.
James Harden had a very nice game with 36 points and 18 free throws and Anthony couldn't put the Knicks over the top despite 10 rebounds and 45 points, one of the best games for a Knick since Patrick Ewing. Harden was out for the last game against the Sixers and came back hard with 36 points and nine rebounds and now the Rockets will host the Denver Nuggets next after playing the Knicks and they have a tough schedule coming up as well, with games against the Dallas Mavericks as well as the Brooklyn Nets and before the San Antonio Spurs at the end of the month.
