TORONTO — Tonight’s Knicks game in Canada will be broadcast in three languages: English, French, and, for the first time in Raptors history, Mandarin.
Yes, Linsanity II is alive north of the border, as are Mike Woodson’s Knicks, who take their five-game winning streak into Air Canada Centre. It is the scene of Jeremy Lin’s most heroic shot.
On Valentine’s night, also Asian Heritage Night in Toronto, during the 8-1 original Linsanity tour, Lin dribbled the clock down to the final tick and lofted a sweet 3-point rainbow with .5 seconds left to give the Knicks a 90-87 victory. The entire arena, filled with thousands of fans of Chinese descent that make up 11 percent of Toronto’s population, filled the building with deafening roars.
Afterward, Lin called it “A Miracle from God’’ — inciting Tim Tebow comparisons. Since Woodson has taken over as interim head coach, Lin hasn’t been heroic, just solid as a rock.
He has averaged 14.8 points, 6.0 assists and 4.8 rebounds and just 3.2 turnovers. He’s playing more in control than under Mike D’Antoni’s speedball offense. With Woodson, the Knicks still run D’Antoni’s up-tempo offense, but with restrictions and structure.
Lin has shown great resilience and D’Antoni’s biggest compliment was the undrafted Harvard point guard was “a winner.’’ In Philadelphia on Wednesday, Lin bounced back from a 1 of 11 start to score 16 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, raging to the rim, continuing his reputation as a crunch-time specialist.
“He has been that since he’s become Linsanity,’’ Woodson said.
Lin said he wasn’t worried about Woodson’s initial remarks the offense would be less Linsanity, creating a Post back page with a “R.I.P. Linsanity’’ tombstone.
“I can control what I can control,’’ Lin said. “I’m not going to guess what’s going to happen. The team will find a way to get everyone involved like we did with J.R. Smith when he came in. We’ll use everybody at the right time.’’
* The Chinese broadcast will be done by former Asian Games gold medalist, Weiping Zhang. … The Knicks enter tonight’s game 1 1/2 games ahead of the Bucks for the eighth and final playoff spot after Boston’s 100-91 victory over Milwaukee last night… The Knicks’ 82-79 victory over the Sixers was the first time the Knicks won scoring fewer than 83 points since 2005 at Utah.