This was the perfect bridge of a game, connecting not only the Melo-free Knicks with the Melo-ful Knicks but also Jeremy Lin as rock-star phenomenon with Jeremy Lin, professional point guard.
And maybe the bridge that links, at last, the Knicks as desperate reclamation project with the Knicks of increasing expectation and ambition.
And with the return of an All-Star.
“There’s just a good feeling around this team right now,” coach Mike D’Antoni said last night, after his team was done pulverizing the overmatched Kings at a festive Madison Square Garden. “We’ve got a lot of success on offense and that leads to a lot of energy on defense, and guys are just playing so well together.”
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Said Lin, “The camaraderie on this team is just ridiculous right now.”
It isn’t that Lin won’t ever drop 38 on anybody again, won’t find it in himself to cash 27 and 11 on someone when the opportunity arises. But if the Knicks keep creeping closer to the ideal they’ve begun to craft for themselves, he won’t have to. He won’t need to.
Those points splurges? They’re nice.
But a stat line like this one — 10 points, 13 assists, endless choruses of oohs and aahs, to say nothing of a 100-85 thrashing on the scoreboard which allowed him to play only 26 minutes and 16 seconds — is the kind of thing that makes you believe that this isn’t simply a perfect storm of sense and serendipity.
“Whatever we need him to do, he’ll do it,” D’Antoni said with the kind of certainty that comes when a coach trusts a player implicitly.
Which he does. Which they all do. Which will now, as soon as tomorrow, undergo a second grand transformation in three games if Carmelo Anthony is ready to shake off his groin injury and rejoin a team that’s gone 5-0 in his absence and 7-0 going back to Lin’s insertion vs. the Nets 13 days ago.
Knicks fans, to no great surprise, are so overwhelmed with Linsanity and so bursting with giddiness at the team’s seven-game winning streak — raising a capsized ship headed for the bottom of New York Harbor into, officially, a sea-level team at 15-15 — that they have laid the responsibility at what lies ahead at the feet of Anthony.
When, in truth, acclimating Anthony to the Knicks’ new world order is a task that falls square on the shoulders of Jeremy Lin professional point guard.
Which, in truth, is an obligation Lin craves.
“He’s a lethal scorer,” Lin said, “and he runs the pick-and-roll so well. We will probably be on opposite sides on the offense and when we swing-swing the ball and set up plays off the pick-and-roll …”
The resulting smile was built out of knowledge of what could be, an artist whose sponsor is about to supply the best tools of the trade that the trade allows.
Anthony is one of the most gifted basketball weapons on Planet Earth, despite the fact that in his absence Knicks fans have blamed him for everything short of Nicki Minaj’s spot at the Grammy Awards. At some point, it’s wise to remember that he is the Knicks’ most-decorated winner. He is the one with the NCAA ring. He is the one with the Olympic gold medal, souvenirs he was essential in acquiring.
At some point, it probably is wise to remember that nudging him into the lineup ahead of Bill Walker is like picking Rao’s over Olive Garden, Peter Luger’s over White Castle. Anthony is incredulous when asked if he can adjust his game to win. He has won plenty already, more than anyone else on the Knicks — including the coach, including Tyson Chandler, a member of last year’s champion Mavericks.
Including the point guard phenom, too.
And Anthony will win again. He will win here. He will win if the cover of the newspapers and magazines plays as he played yesterday, which in many ways was the most impressive outing of a relentlessly impressive week. We have seen him score. Yesterday, at one point, Lin had 13 assists and the Kings as a team had 12.
Those are the kinds of facts and figures winning players accrue. Carmelo has his college ring, his Olympic medal. Don’t worry about him. And if the kid plays like this?
No need to worry about him, either.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com