Lin looks to pile up wins upon return
The NBA season is two-thirds over, but for Jeremy Lin it might just as well be starting. With just 27 games left on the Nets’ schedule, and Lin finally making his return Friday in Denver, the team and its oft-injured floor general are hoping to win as many as possible.
“I’m excited to see Jeremy back and trying to get some momentum going into next season with our lineups and see who plays well with whom and who plays well with Jeremy at quarterback, your point guard,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “It’s important.”
“Win as many as you can. We’ve only won nine games, and that hurts everybody in the organization,’’ Lin said. “At this point I could really care less about a lot of other stuff, other than this team needs a win. We need to feel what it means to win. We need to build a winning culture, and my only goal is to get as many wins as we can.”
Victories have been a foreign concept, with the Nets mired in the NBA cellar at 9-47 and stuck in a leagueworst 14-game losing skid. Much of that is due to Lin missing 44 games, including the last 26.
But Lin spent much of the All-Star break in California, working out with shooting coach Doc Scheppler and a Nets team employee. Finally set to return, Lin and the Nets are hoping Friday serves as a reset — albeit a rusty one.
“You think you’re going to be able to do that move, move at that speed, jump that height, and it’s just unrealistic being out eight weeks,” Lin said. “So right now it’s just trying to get my body back to where it was before and then I’ll be able to do more of the stuff I want to do. There’s really no way other than to just go through it. It doesn’t matter how much rehab I do; I’m going to have cobwebs.”
Part of it may be a minutes restriction, though the performance team hasn’t yet determined that. Still, Atkinson admitted a preference for starting his floor general, restrictions or not, to see him play with Brook Lopez.
“My gut, to be honest, I’d like to start him. But we’re going to get all the information and then make the decision,’’ said Atkinson. “It’s part of the fresh start, seeing him with Brook. If we can do that, that’d be ideal.”