New York Knicks fans don't know where he came from, but Jeremy Lin has exploded into an amazing force at the point guard position over the past two games.

On Saturday, with 3:35 to go in the first quarter, Lin came off the bench to lead the Knicks to a 99-92 win over the New Jersey Nets and Deron Williams. He ultimately played 36 minutes, scored 25 points (10/19 FG, 5/7 FT), dished off seven assists, grabbed five rebounds and had two steals, to go with only one turnover.  

Coach Mike D'Antoni was happy with Lin finally providing a point guard presence on the Knicks roster (despite being the third-stringer previously): 

"The biggest thing is, he's got a point guard mentality," said D'Antoni.

The Harvard graduate, after jumping from the Golden State Warriors, to the Houston Rockets, to the Knicks, has been impressing more than just his coach.

"He has been breaking down guys in practice for a while now," Tyson Chandler said. "We were saying at halftime he just needs to play more minutes."

"He won the game for us," Carmelo Anthony said.

And then D'Antoni decided to start Lin at the point against the Utah Jazz last night. Lin repaid the faith as he led the Knicks to a 99-88 victory.

In 45 minutes, Lin recorded 28 points (10/17 FG, 7/9 FT), eight assists and two steals, however did blemish that line with eight turnovers. He scored on a variety of drives to the basket, showing a quick first step and an ability to absord contact and finish with both hands. He also mixed it up with some jump shots and an array of great passes in the lane to the likes of Chandler.

Check out one of Lin's amazing drives:

Of course, the Taiwanese animators at Next Media Animation were over the moon with Taiwanese-American Lin's emergence and honoured his 25 point Nets performance with one of their famous animations:

The question is, where does Lin go from here? At 200 pounds and 6'3", the guy has proven that he is stocky and strong enough to play the NBA game. He has a quick first step, however how long will he surprise opponents for now that he has had two huge back-to-back games? It will certainly be interesting to watch on Wednesday as the Knicks take on the Washington Wizards, presumably with Lin at the point again. Could he be the long-term answer at the point for the Knicks?

Projecting a long way down the track, could Lin be voted to the NBA All-Star team in 2013 on the back of some Asian support? I know a huge number of my Asian friends are excited about a possible NBA successor to Yao Ming. 

The NBA today suspended Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves) for two games, after he stomped Luis Scola (Houston Rockets) on the face and chest on February 4.

Amazingly, there are still fans on some message boards and comments sections who claim that Scola was somehow at fault (and deserved it), you know, since he's South American and all... The blatant racism by many American fans against European and South American players continues to astound me.

The play by Love was flat-out dirty and highly disappointing from one of the league's hardest working players. This type of behaviour needs to be stomped out (pun intended) immediately, before it becomes endemic in the NBA game. A two game suspension, in my opinion, was insufficient. The fact that an official didn't spot the incident is also somewhat troubling.

Video:

Chicago Bulls coach, Tom Thibodeau (source):

Granmama, Larry Johnson (source):

We've featured various NBA stars here in the past, teaching English basketball-related phrases for English Baby!. Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic is the latest player to help out the English-learning masses with this clip, talking about slang for shot-blocking.

Superman 2.0's natural personality comes across in this video and he even shows off some of his Mandarin-speaking skills that he learnt whilst in China.

Other English Baby! stars we've featured previously:

Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Rip Hamilton and Carmelo Anthony

You can check out others, such as Yi Jianlian, Al Horford, Zaza Pachulia, Danny Granger, Channing Frye and Juwan Howard here at English Baby!

This dunk is simply ridiculous.

(photo courtesy of @AndrewMBogut on twitter)

Unfortunate news for Andrew Bogut and the Milwaukee Bucks as the star big man went down with an ankle injury nine minutes into their victory over the Houston Rockets yesterday.

Our hearts go out to Bogey. Ankle injuries are one of the most unavoidable aspects of basketball -- they can happen even when you're not in a highly tense contest. This one has put Bogut out "indefinitely". The most likely beneficiary of additional minutes will be Drew Gooden.

You can see how it happened 20 seconds into this match recap:

Inexplicably, Bogut is reporting receiving hated-filled negativity via twitter following the injury. The wonders of the cranially-bereft on the internet will never cease, will they?

The fracture to his ankle puts Bogut's preparations for the London 2012 Olympics with the Australian Boomers in doubt. A key focal point of the Boomers offence and defence, along with point guard Patty Mills, the absence of Bogut would mean a huge drop in the projected rankings for the Aussies. That said, with six months today until the Games start, there is time for recovery.

There is always going to be some rivalry when the Clippers and Lakers match up in a Los Angeles cross-town duel. And of course, there is always that thing that a lot of American players seem to have against Spaniards and other "Euro floppers". So, when things got heated at the end of this Lakers victory, it's no wonder that Chris Paul over-reacted to a good natured Pau Gasol rub on the head.

Watch the video and see what you think...

And this is what the two players had to say after the game, courtesy of the Los Angeles Times:

What do you think? Did CP3 over-react, or did he have a right to be angry about this gesture?

Due to popular demand, the PostScript Podcast is back for 2012.

That's right -- all of you basketball junkies and fans of inane laughter and nerdy tangential discussion can get your fix once again, with Episode 7 - "Rebounding".  Click the link to check out the episode. You can either stream it directly from the site, download the MP3 file, or even better, subscribe on iTunes, so that you never miss an episode again. It's free!

If you do the whole iTunes thing, we'd really appreciate a positive review on there (keep the negativity on the down low)... and if you can tell your friends about the podcast, even better! 

One huge benefit of a condensed NBA season, with back-to-backs and more games in less time, is that we get more opportunities for massive dunks (and slackened defence to allow them). The Hoop Doctors put together these Top 10 Dunks of the Week:

There is an AP report doing the rounds which gives a little insight into Patty Mills' unsurprising desire to return to the Portland Trail Blazers and the NBA. Most of the information is re-hashing what we already know, but here are the key parts:

"It would be good to get released, obviously that's what I'm hoping for. We just don't know," Mills said Wednesday night after attending the Blazers' game against the Orlando Magic.

If he is let go, it's unlikely that Mills would return to Portland in the near future because the Blazers' roster is full, including point guards Raymond Felton, Nolan Smith and Armon Johnson. Portland would have to cut someone to bring him back.

"I'd love to be back here. I don't know the chances, but obviously I feel like I'm very close to the guys on the team here and obviously to the community," Mills said. "To come back to a place like this, it definitely feels like home to me."

...

Mills waved a towel again on Wednesday night when the Blazers rallied but ultimately fell to the Magic 107-104.

Portland center Marcus Camby shouted "Miss you!" to Mills across the locker room after the game.

A free agent, Mills said he plans to get healthy and obtain his clearance before entertaining offers from NBA teams.

Obviously Mills is in a tough situation right now. He is effectively hamstrung (pardon the pun) by the Chinese team's reluctance to give him a letter of clearance. That holds him out of action until March. Obviously that will play havoc with his fitness and feel for the game as well.

In addition, the Blazers do have three point guards on the roster. However, Felton is the only one playing significant minutes, with Jamal Crawford playing taking on much of the backup point guard duties. Either way, that will make it hard for Mills to crack into the squad, unless injuries or trades strike.