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After Jeremy Lin’s nationally televised theatrics were over, after the point guard’s international stardom had reached yet another level, after Jason Kidd said Lin indeed looks like Steve Nash in Phoenix, Tyson Chandler soaked it all in and declared what may have become obvious by now:
Lin’s Knicks are a genuine contender for a championship this season.
Chandler should know best, having helped the Mavericks to a title eight months ago. Chandler faced Dallas during the Knicks’ 104-97 victory in yesterday’s thrilling Garden matinee, and said he feels his new club is championship-caliber with Lin’s fairy tale, J.R. Smith’s arrival and Carmelo Anthony’s grand return to Linsanity scheduled tonight against the Nets.
VACCARO: LIN FAIRY TALE GETTING ‘REAL’ INTERESTING FOR KNICKS
This great Linderella story is becoming a great basketball story.
Lin burned the defending champions with 28 points, 14 assists and five steals. Lin got the better of 6-foot-7 defensive specialist Shawn Marion in the fourth quarter and catapulted the Knicks to the season’s most sensational victory, which should further boost their credibility across the country. The Knicks are 8-1 since Lin took command at point guard and Anthony has hardly been a part of the surge.
“I’m loving the fact that I really feel the team I’m on now can really contend,’’ said Chandler, who finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks. “The additions now, we’re a full team. We’re very deep in every position. It wasn’t like that when I first came here. We have all those pieces filled now.’’
The Mavericks had the undrafted Lin on their summer league team in Las Vegas in 2010, but never invited him to training camp. That made for another “how do you like me now’’ day for Lin.
“I was watching them win the championship last year,’’ said Lin, who dazzled before his former Palo Alto High School coach and a handful of high school teammates in the star-studded crowd. “And that’s obviously where we want to go. This is helpful to us to see where our team can go and what we can become. That’s the biggest takeway from tonight.’’
Kidd, Lin’s boyhood idol, also had a poignant takeaway.
“He is taking [coach Mike] D’Antoni’s offense and looking a bit like Steve Nash out there,’’ Kidd said. “Nash has had a lot of success running that system. It is a point guard’s dream.’’
Kidd, who once starred for the Nets, embraced Lin after the buzzer. Lin said he got “a lot of veteran advice.’’
“We were talking the whole game,’’ Lin said. “He’s a class act.’’
The Knicks, who moved back to 16-16 and recovered from Friday’s speed-bump loss to the Hornets, started off brilliantly with a 32-20 masterpiece of a first quarter. But they fell behind by 12 in the third, and needed to rally in the fourth to overpower the Mavericks.
The Knicks could not have stolen back the game without 3-point ace Steve Novak, who played seven games for the Mavericks last season.
Novak, who had not scored entering the fourth quarter, bagged 14 points in the first 5:30 of the period, sinking four straight 3-pointers and a 17-footer as the Knicks seized control. Nobody has thrived more than Novak under Lin’s point-guard leadership.
“I’m not going to say he’s the best shooter I’ve ever seen. I’ve already screwed that up,’’ cracked D’Antoni, a joking reference to his remark about Danilo Gallinari last season.
The victory also marked the Knicks debut of Smith, the recently signed shooting guard, who had a sizzling start before tiring, finishing with 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting. Smith played despite not having practiced with the team and helped make the Knicks look like a precise, unselfish streetball squad.
“With J.R. in there, we had no plays,’’ D’Antoni said. “I like to play that way. It’s hard to scout. We just moved it. I was waiting for another team to say ‘I have next.’ ’’
Lin again was made the focus of the defense, getting doubled even more than he was when the Hornets forced him to commit nine turnovers Friday. Lin had just one giveaway in the first half but finished with seven.
The Mavericks covered Lin with the 6-foot-7 Marion and doubled him even before he penetrated. Lin, who had six points and six assists in the fourth, hit a monster 3-pointer late in the shot clock to put the Knicks up 98-93 with 2:48 left and a final-minute steal to seal it.
“Obviously with the double team, I was just trying to get rid of it or back it up and waiting for the double team to go away, then I would attack Marion,’’ Lin said. “With the double team, I hadn’t seen it, and it caught me off guard.’’
There were a flood of celebrities at the Garden for the Sunday matinee. Even reclusive Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder who like Lin attended Harvard, sat behind the Knicks bench. Front-row fixture Spike Lee, who donned Lin’s Palo Alto High school green jersey Friday, was decked out in a crimson Harvard jersey.
About a half dozen of Lin’s former high school teammates were in attendance as well as Kevin Costner, Eva Longoria, Mark Sanchez, Seth Meyers and Rosie Perez. Lin didn’t disappoint.
“He keeps reading [the defense],’’ D’Antoni said. “They double-teamed him every time. He still had turnovers, but the game he had was just unbelievable. You can’t teach what he has inside his heart. What he has inside his heart is huge.’’
Smith got his first taste of Linsanity and loved it.
“I didn’t see a full game [when Smith was playing in China],’’ Smith said. “I saw a lot of YouTube highlights. Then I saw the Kobe interview: ‘Who is this kid?’ Then to go out there and have a game like that against the Lakers, he really inspired a lot of people around here and the world. He is a person people can look up to. When you heard his story, it gives you hope for anything.’’
Even for the Knicks’ first title since 1973.
marc.berman@nypost.com