The delirium over Jeremy Lin (he hit us with a surprise left) will be met with an immediate test tonight at the Garden against the Utah Jazz. It’s evident that Lin relies on penetration, and based on his breakout game against the Nets, finishing at the rim.
That’s all fine and good against New Jersey, but will it continue tonight? According to Hoopdata, the Nets allow the 8th most attempts at the rim (24.8 per game) and an atrocious 66.3% of those attempts are makes.
It will be much harder for Lin to get to the basket against the Jazz, who are third best in shots allowed at the rim at 21.2 per game (although the Jazz are even worse than the Nets once allowing an attempt at the rim, with an opponent’s FG% at the cup of 66.7%, good for 4th worst.)
Lin still has a real opportunity though if he can get into the paint, if not all the way to the rim. The Jazz are dead last in opponents’ field goal attempts between 3-9 feet (15.0 per game) and 5th worst in field goal percentage allowed from that range (39.6%). Expect Lin to have another good game if he can augment his attack by pulling up or hitting floaters once he beats his man.
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