NBA

Lin leads Knicks to bounce back win over Mavericks

The defending NBA champion Mavericks first discovered Jeremy Lin on their summer league team in Las Vegas 19 months ago, but never invited him to training camp.

In Sunday’s matinee on national TV, the Mavs got burned by Lin and fellow ex-Maverick Steve Novak as the Knicks took control in the fourth quarter. With Lin spectacular, the Knicks overpowered the Mavericks in a 104-97 victory at the deafening Garden. The Knicks moved to 8-1 since Lin started getting major playing time, and Linsanity will only grow with the big win on national TV.

Lin, the global point-guard phenomenon, regained his mojo after Friday’s sloppy performance to score a game-high 28 points on 11 of 20 shooting with 14 assists and five steals. Steve Novak, who hadn’t scored entering the fourth quarter, bagged 14 points in first 5:30 of the period, sinking four straight 3-pointers and a 14-footer as the Knicks seized control in the final period.

“He keeps reading it, they double team him every time,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said. “He still had turnovers, but the game he had was just ridiculous. You can’t teach what he has inside his heart, what he has inside his heart is huge.”

Lin, who kept his turnovers down to seven, sizzled with his former high school coach and handful of teammates from Palo Alto, Calif. on hand to watch the thriller.

Novak, whom the Knicks picked up in December after he cleared waivers from San Antonio, was on the Mavericks roster part of last season. Nobody has thrived more than Novak under Lin’s point guard leadership.

The game also marked the Knicks debut of new signee J.R. Smith, who had a hot start but tired out scoring 15 points on 6 of 16 shooting. Smith played despite not having a practice under his belt.

Appropriately, Tyson Chandler, who led Dallas to a title, had the final points on a last-second uncontested break.

Lin hit a monster trey late with the shot clock to put the Knicks up 98-93 with 2:48 left and made a steal in the final 30 seconds to seal the win.

There were a flood of celebrities for the Sunday matinee. Even reclusive Mark Zuckerberg, who invented Facebook at Lin’s Harvard in 2004, sat behind the Knicks bench. Spike Lee, who donned Lin’s Palo Alto High school green jersey Friday, had a new surprise Sunday, decked out in his crimson-colored Harvard jersey. Lee told The Post the high-school jersey came on request from his high school coach, Peter Diepenbrock.

About 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.

The Knicks shot to a 30-18 lead after one quarter, playing flawless, with Lin precise at point guard and Smith making an early splash.

Smith hit three of his first four shots – all 3-pointers – and finished with 9 points in the quarter. Smith then got a little too shot-happy and finished the half 3 of 8, missing his final four shots.

The Mavericks dominated the third quarter and took back the lead with 9:55 left in the third on a Jason Kidd trey. The Mavs moved up by 12 points as Nowitzki got hot. He had a four-point play in the third after sinking a trey over Stoudemire who got him in the face. Lin had three costly turnovers in the third quarter as the Mavs staged a 25-10 run to start out the second half..

But Lin helped initiate a late third-quarter rally and capped it with his interception of a Lamar Odom backcourt pass in which he turned into an electrifying uncontested dunk with 12.5 seconds left in the quarter, bringing the Knicks to within 75-72 entering the fourth. Lin had 22 points and 8 assists going into the fourth.

The Knicks tied the score at 75 in the opening minute of the fourth when Lin drove the lane and dished to the left corner for an open Novak, who drilled the trey. Novak hit a rare 2-point goal off the dribble to give the Knicks the lead back at 77-75.

The Knicks were less crisp on both ends in the second quarter, scored just 16 points and were up 48-45 at halftime.

Lin notched 12 points in the first half with six assists and – most importantly – one turnover. Lin was 5 of 10 from the field, recovering well from his nine-turnover outing in the Hornets loss Friday.

To cap the first quarter, Lin drove into lane and hit a to-the-ceiling floater at the buzzer to put Knicks up 12 in a first-quarter masterpiece.

He is a marked man, no question. In a scary moment in the first quarter, Lin flew out on a break and Jason Terry caught up to him and all but body checked him to the floor, with Lin going down on his chest with 4:45 left in the period. Terry was called for a flagrant foul and Lin bounced up after only a few seconds.

Earlier Lin took Shawn Marion off the dribble and pulled up for an 17-footer, creating his own shot. Moments later, Lin blew into the lane and fed streaking Amar’e Stoudemire for an easy dunk to tie the score at 13 with 6:51 left in the first quarter.