2013-10-13 NBA台北熱身賽-火箭VS溜馬-林書豪HIGHLIGHT
Jason Friedman
Rockets.com
TAIPEI - Instant analysis and observations from Houston’s 107-98 preseason victory over the Pacers played Sunday in Taipei:
- When the Linsanity documentary eventually comes out on Blu-Ray/DVD, they better include the entirety of tonight’s game in the bonus features section because the Jeremy Lin Taipei saw tonight was just as good as anything J-Lin produced during that magical 6-week stretch with the Knicks.
Lin began the first quarter by swishing a top-of-the-key 3 and ended the period with another triple to beat the shot clock. In between those bombs, the 25-year-old also threw a picture perfect alley-oop pass from half-court to Chandler Parsons for a slam and scored on a ridiculously high degree-of-difficulty floater that he somehow managed to bank in over the outstretched arms of Roy Hibbert, who by that early juncture had already blocked four Rockets shots.
The second quarter provided more of the same. Lin kicked-started another Rockets run by picking up his second steal of the game and punctuated that play with a slam that sent the crowd – and the Rockets’ bench – into a frenzy. The proceedings then went from fairy tale to downright pinch-me-because-there’s-no-way-this-is-real-life when Lin summoned his inner Dwight Howard by swatting a shot into the stands. By that point, the only thing left for Lin to do was drop the mic and strut off stage. He was, quite simply, just that good while racking up 12 points (on 5-of-6 shooting), 2 assists, 2 boards and 2 steals during a little more than 21 minutes of first half action.
All of which gave added credence to the line of thinking that Lin does have a knack for rising to the occasion. There was undoubtedly a significant amount of pressure on the Palo Alto native coming into tonight’s contest, though I’d argue he was under far more pressure and scrutiny last December when he made his initial return to Madison Square Garden to face the Knicks (which just so happened to follow a miserable contest in Toronto that marked Lin’s lowest point of the season). All he did that night in New York was go 9-of-15 from the field while scoring 22 points and dishing 9 assists in a Rockets’ romp.
The most important takeaway from all of this, however: Lin has looked terrific through three games this preseason. His passing is spot-on, his jumper is locked-in, he’s pushed the ball superbly in transition, he’s getting to the free throw line and his defense has improved from what we saw from him a year ago. So regardless of whether he’s starting or coming off the bench, these are huge potential developments as they pertain to Houston’s prospects this season.
- Speaking of which, the Rockets again rolled the Pacers in the first half en route to taking a 15-point lead into the break. Houston went 7-of-13 from beyond the arc, limited Indiana to 34.2 percent shooting from the field, and its starters looked absolutely dominant once more against a very good Indiana squad.
But it wasn’t just Houston’s starting five that deserved all the plaudits; the Rockets got good mileage out of the Lin-Beverley backcourt pairing for a few minutes, and then really went into overdrive when they tossed out a quintet of Lin-Harden-Parsons-Casspi-Howard. Rockets fans no doubt recall that a similar fivesome featuring Carlos Delfino in the Casspi role consistently crushed opponents last season, and Casspi’s scorching start to the preseason could portend positively toward Houston achieving comparable results with just such a lineup in 2013-14. Casspi entered tonight’s game averaging a ridiculous 18.5 points (on 15-of-19 shooting) and 6 rebounds per game through Houston’s first two preseason contests, and played very well once more, finishing with 13 points and 9 rebounds.
- For a good chunk of the second half, fans saw a Houston team that looked like its road weary legs had caught to them; the Pacers like a club with bodies that had finally made the adjustment to Asia time. The Rockets got sloppy in the third quarter, Indiana caught fire from deep, and Indy crawled within two points around the eight-minute mark of the fourth quarter. That’s to take nothing away from the Pacers, though. This is a heck of a team that has every reason to believe they can be better this year than they were a year ago when they took the two-time champs from Miami to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Not road weary, however: Omri Casspi or Francisco Garcia (seeing his first action of the preseason after missing the first two games with a groin strain). Those two turned the fourth quarter into their own personal shooting gallery, combining to score 15 points and knock down four 3s. That Pacers’ surge that trimmed their deficit to 2? Summarily squashed. Thanks to the heroics of Casspi and Garcia, Houston cruised to another impressive win.
Yes, the Rockets have plenty more to work on as they attempt to get themselves in regular season form. But if their starters continue to play the way they have through the first three preseason games, and Garcia and Casspi keep shooting like Larry Bird, Houston will go roughly 82-0 this season. Presumably, things won’t always be this easy.
NBA star Jeremy Lin charms Taiwan fans in preseason game
AFP - Asian-American NBA star Jeremy Lin and teammate James Harden joined hands on Sunday to help the Houston Rockets beat the Indiana Pacers 107-98 in an NBA preseason game held in Taipei, Lin's ancestral home.
As a point guard, Lin scored 17 points in his 34-minute play while centre Harden contributed 21 points in a game that drew a sell-out crowd of more than 13,000 fans at the Taipei Arena statidum.
When Lin had to quit just a few minutes before the close of the game, local fans gave him a thundering applause.
"I'm happy with the result. After all, we won. Playing (basketball) here is crazy. Fans are noisy and passionate," Lin said in Mandarin Chinese at a press conference.
Houston coach Kevin McHale added: "The atmosphere was unbelievable. Yes, it was definitely Jeremy Lin's home court. He played very well."
"The last week to 10 days he?s been very, very good in our games and our practices. I think he?s really comfortable with who he is. He?s in a good state of mind", McHale said.
The 25-year-old, whose parents are Taiwanese, has become a sporting hero on the island since he shot to stardom in the NBA with the New York Knicks early last year, sparking a global following known as "Linsanity".
Lin, who was later traded to Houston, had a mixed performance in his first full NBA season that saw the Rockets eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
McHale said he could understand the tremendous pressure on Lin after he swiftly rose to his fame and emerged as the basketball icon in Asia and elsewhere in the world.
"He is a great young man, he worked out very hard this summer," McHale said, in his reference to Lin's step-up training, including in shooting where he has sometimes struggled, after his first full-year with NBA.
NBA commissioner David Stern on Saturday hailed Lin's success as a "true milestone", saying Lin had been "adopted by all countries in Asia as their very own" after the two NBA team's successful exhibition game in Manila last week.
At Sunday's game, Paul George led the Pacers with 19 points followed by 17 points of George Hill.
Among those watching Sunday's game in Taipei were Terry Gou, founder of Taiwan's tech giant Hon Hai Precision and Chinese basketball icon Yao Ming, a former Rockets centre.
TAIPEI GETS A FULL DOSE OF LINSANITY
TAIPEI, Taiwan – It was an afternoon that began with a greeting from Paul George.
Yet the 12,905 squealing, appreciative fans who came early and stayed on their feet often left the impression that John and Ringo were also inside Taipei Arena.
It might not have quite reached the level of The Beatles at Shea Stadium, but Jeremy Lin’s return to his ancestral roots hit all the notes of cultural phenomenon, NBA star and real life dream come true.
They love you, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was the return of Linsanity, all of the attendant pregame hype and palpable buzz in the air meeting up with a performance that delivered by the main attraction.
From the moment he scored the Rockets’ first basket of the game on a 3-pointer from the top of the key to his exit midway through the fourth quarter of Houston’s 107-98 win over the Pacers, Lin was the focus of virtually all attention and idolatry.
When Lin left the game with 5:52 left to play with 17 points on 6-for-8 shooting, four assists, two rebounds and one monster block, teammate Francisco Garcia encouraged the throng to come to its feet and then he clamped Lin like a little brother in a headlock and patted his approval.
Lin stood in a back hallway smiling and shaking his head at the experience.
“It wasn’t like anything I’m normally accustomed to, going out there before the game for warmups and having everyone yelling,” he said. “Yeah, I was nervous. I haven’t felt that way before a game since probably the first time back to MSG last season.
“Really, it was everything I could have hoped for. (Asssistant coach) Chris Finch said, ‘It was like all your birthdays rolled into one. You got the 3s, the dunk, the block.’ I think he was right. I didn’t know how this was gonna go, but I definitely didn’t think it would go this good.”
Rockets coach Kevin McHale said Lin’s play was simply a continuation of the progress he’s made since the opening of training camp.
“He played very well,” McHale said. “The last week to 10 days he’s been very, very good in our games and our practices. I think he’s really comfortable with who he is. He’s in a good state of mind … Jeremy’s in really a good place. This is the way he’s been playing in practice.”
Nearly half the crowd wore some kind of NBA jersey or T-shirt and the lion’s share of those bore Lin’s name and number from various career incarnations. There were red Lin Rockets jerseys and white Lin Rockets jerseys. There were even a few with Lin’s name on the back of the throwback navy blue pajama-striped jerseys that Lin never wore. There were Lin jerseys from Harvard and his time with Golden State. And, of course, there were Lin’s jerseys from that magical five-week stretch of 2012 when Linsanity was born in York.
They screamed with delight when Lin came out of the tunnel and ran onto the court for pregame warmups nearly an hour before the opening tip and they roared in appreciation when he stepped into the spotlight and shined in front of an audience that included his parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and thousands of other Taiwanese who claim him as their own.
“I have been an NBA fan for about 10 years,” said Taiwan native Tony Kuo, 25, who studied business at Michigan State. “The truth is the Pistons were always my favorite back, back from the days of their (2004) championship.
“But when Jeremy first came into the league with the Warriors and then he went to New York and did what he did, well, now he is my favorite and the Rockets are my team.
“I followed Jeremy when he was in Harvard and hoped that he would get a chance. But I wasn’t really sure if an Asian player could ever have the experience he did in New York.
“When Yao Ming played, he was famous here. But nothing like Lin. There is no question that Jeremy Lin is the No. 1 sports celebrity in Taiwan today. I can’t even think of anyone close enough to him to be No. 2.”
Kuo’s girlfriend, Ashley Wu, 29, said she never really took to the NBA when she was at Michigan State.
“I guess now I like the Rockets, but I went out and bought this Knicks shirt because the blue is a better color,” she said. “This is a really exciting and fun event and it’s fun to be here to support Lin and him,” she said, pointing at Kuo.
For the most part, it was fast-paced and seemed to be more intensely played for a preseason game with plenty of banging and with regulars getting a lot of minutes.
James Harden led the Rockets with 21 points. George had 19 to top the Pacers and George Hill had 17.
Nevertheless, according to how a script might have been written, Lin practically took the game into his hands in the first quarter and shaped it to fit the hype and his image. By the time the opening period was done, Lin had drilled a pair of 3-pointers, closed out a fast break with a crowd-pleasing dunk and then got a real rise from everyone when he chased down Indiana’s Danny Granger on a breakaway and used a sweeping swat of his arm to send the ball into the first row of seats.
“When I got that shot, just about all I could do was smile,” Lin said. “Not at him, but just the fact that it happened, because I’ve never done anything like that before in a real NBA game. Maybe in practice. So when I got that shot, I all could think was everything was going my way.”
Half a world away from where it was born, Linsanity was back. And, fittingly, at home.
林書豪首發17+4哈登21分 台北之行火箭再克步行者
新浪體育訊 北京時間10月13日，NBA[微博]全球係列賽來到中國台北站，火箭憑借“主場”之利，以107-98擊敗了步行者。
在父老鄉親麵前，林書豪[微博]表現神勇，他打了全場最長的34分鍾，8投6中，拿下了17分、4次助攻和3個搶斷。詹姆斯-哈登21分全部是上半場所得，錢德勒-帕森斯11分6個籃板，德懷特-霍華德10分6個籃板。替補出場的弗朗西斯科-加西亞得了15分，歐米-卡斯比13分，多塔塔斯-莫鐵尤納斯10分。
步行者連續兩次敗給火箭。保羅-喬治拿下了19分，喬治-希爾[微博]17分，羅伊-希伯特11分。丹尼-格蘭傑替補出場，得了15分9個籃板，CJ-沃特森14分。
兩隊繼續亞洲之行。10日在馬尼拉相遇，火箭以116-96大勝。今天到了中國台北，可以說是林書豪的主場。比賽開始之前，介紹步行者球員時，不斷聽到噓聲，而火箭出場時，則是歡聲雷動。
火箭的第一攻自然是給林書豪，霍華德有機會出手，但仍把球交給外線的林書豪，他揚手就命中三分，球迷起立喝彩。林書豪也給隊友製造機會，本節打了近4分鍾後，火箭發動快攻，林書豪剛過半場就將球高高拋起，早已快下的帕森斯飛身將球扣進，現場氣氛再度被引爆。
林書豪注定是這場比賽的主角，他讓人想起了尼克斯時代的“林瘋狂”。首節還有7分15秒時，林書豪搶斷得手，自已帶球發起快攻。麵對高大的希伯特，林書豪絲毫不畏懼，迎著他上籃，希伯特一把抓下籃球，但裁判認為這是幹擾球，阿豪再添2分。本節最後1分鍾，林書豪還投中兩球，他的一記三分使火箭以29-21領先。本節林書豪已經有10分進賬。
三分、中投、快攻上籃，林書豪在第一節已經讓球迷過足了癮。第二節開始後不久，林書豪又讓現場觀眾見證了他的扣籃。盡管火箭此後有3分鍾內未能得分，他們仍保持領先。火箭重拾感覺後，哈登和帕森斯相繼命中三分。本節還有3分39秒時，林書豪快速推進，但突然將球分給外線的哈登，後者輕鬆命中三分，火箭以47-34擴大優勢。步行者在本節最後4分27秒隻投中一球，而火箭不斷遠投得手，上半場以55-40領先。
林書豪是上半場出場時間最長的，打了21分29秒，6投5中，拿下了12分，他還助攻2次。隊友哈登拿下了13分，霍華德8分，但身背3次犯規。步行者在籃板上以17-26處於劣勢，喬治得了11分。
這隻是一場季前賽，但火箭在場上的表現卻跟常規賽一樣，搶籃板時非常拚命，全場的進攻節奏也非常快。火箭的態度也激起了步行者的鬥誌，下半場他們的反擊非常猛烈。
第三節還有9分20秒時，林書豪又一次三分命中，火箭還以65-51領先。希爾很快還以一記三分，而喬治和希伯特相繼扣籃得手。本節中段，步行者發動11-0的攻擊波，一舉將比分追成67-69。哈登和加西亞各命中一記三分，火箭才穩住陣腳。三節過後，火箭以81-74領先。
第四節林書豪帶一幫替補球員在場上。步行者幾度將差距縮小，比賽還有8分39秒時隻以82-84落後。兩隊此後相繼投籃不中，布魯爾搶下一個進攻籃板後，傳球給外線的卡斯比，後者命中一記三分，而加西亞此後也三分命中，火箭連得8分，在本節過半時以92-82領先。
步行者有些失去鬥誌，主帥叫了暫停後，沃特森造成犯規，兩罰兩中，但貝弗利緊接著中投命中，火箭保持兩位數的優勢。
比賽還有6分09秒時，林書豪被換下場，球迷紛紛起立鼓掌。
在場上的球員以行動捍衛林書豪的“主場”，加西亞和又命中兩記三分，在比賽還有3分23秒時，火箭以103-85領先。雖然步行者還留了格蘭傑在場上，但無力扭轉乾坤。(吳哥)
林書豪自豪能封蓋格蘭傑:我從未扇過那麽狠的帽!
林書豪表示，今天的比賽他很緊張，不過整場比賽他還是充分享受到了樂趣。談到今天一些火爆的個人表現，他自己也很驚訝。麥帥表示，下一場比賽貝弗利將先發。
火箭今天在中國台北市和步行者又進行了一場季前賽交鋒。身為“地主”，林書豪坦言自己賽前非常緊張，甚至做熱身都會引來陣陣高呼，所以他的緊張程度遠超上一場在菲律賓打比賽。最終火箭還是輕鬆取勝，比分是107-98，林書豪在比賽中的表現頗有亮點。
“火箭助教芬奇說這場比賽好像過生日送大禮一樣，”林書豪表示，“你表演了一個2+1，有一個扣籃，還有一個火鍋。觀眾、氣氛……什麽都包含一點。我的反應就是‘噢，我的天，一切都站在我這邊。’”
林書豪貢獻了17分、4助攻、3搶斷。
“林書豪打得很出色，”火箭主教練麥克海爾表示，“過去一周、10幾天，他一直打得很好，無論是比賽還是訓練。我想他現在很適應自己原本的狀態。他減了體重，他更敏捷了。今天他再度奉獻了出色的表現，而且訓練裏也表現得很好。”
在比賽中，林書豪甚至還在快攻防守裏送給步行者的全明星球員格蘭傑一個大火鍋，此球也引起了現場一片沸騰。
“我所能做的一切就是微笑，”林書豪說道，“我自己也說‘我都不相信它就這麽發生了。’在我職業生涯裏，我從來沒在一場真正的NBA比賽裏這麽幹過。我在訓練中倒是有做過，但今天這可是比賽。我從來沒有這麽狠地扇過別人的帽，我開始樂了起來，不是針對格蘭傑，隻是對發生的這一切開懷大笑。”
“太讚了，太棒了，”一位球迷說道，“林書豪太出色了，對於所有的亞洲球迷來說，他就是一個偶像。”
“我在球場上打得相當開心，我想這才是最重要的，”林書豪表示。
麥克海爾表示，火箭現在仍在輪流使用先發，下一場比賽他會讓貝弗利先發出戰。另外，麥帥還特別挑出了一個球員進行表揚，他就是卡斯比。此役卡斯比貢獻13分、9籃板。
“卡斯比為我們貢獻了一個相當優秀的表現，”麥克海爾說道，“他打出了一個極高的水平。”
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