It's time for New York's Jeremy Lin to experience a little "Love" when the Knicks visit the Timberwolves on Saturday.
"Linsanity" was in full force Friday in Madison Square Garden when Lin continued his unlikely rise from obscurity, pouring in a career-high 38 points along with seven assists and four rebounds, as New York downed Kobe Bryant and Los Angeles Lakers, 92-85.
Iman Shumpert added 12 points and Jared Jeffries scored 11 for the Knicks, who defeated the Lakers for the first time since January 30, 2007, ending a nine- game losing streak to Los Angeles.
Lin was making just his third career start for the undermanned Knicks, who won their fourth straight contest despite being without stars Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony.
Lin, an undrafted Harvard product, is averaging a startling 28.5 points and 8.0 assists during New York's four-game run and the 114 total points he has scored over that span are six more than he had in his 38 previous NBA games with Golden State and the Knicks.
"The only thing we established tonight was getting four in a row," said Lin about his recent success. "I'm not really too worried right now about proving anything to anybody. I think as a team we're just growing and we're trying to build on this momentum. I think that's what everyone is buying into right now and that's why we're becoming more dangerous."
Anthony will remain on the sidelines tonight with a strained right groin, while Stoudemire isn't expected back from grieving the death of his brother, until next week.
The Wolves, meanwhile, come in after dropping two straight contests, including Friday's 104-97 setback to Dallas at Target Center. Kevin Love returned from a two-game suspension for kicking Houston's Luis Scola in that one and finished with 32 points and 12 rebounds.
"They definitely wanted this one tonight," said Love. "We waited too long to go on our run. That hurt us."
Michael Beasley added 20 points while rookie point guard Ricky Rubio had 10 points and eight assists.
New York has lost six of seven to the Wolves in the Twin Cities.
