Linsanity fades as Rockets misfire

Jeremy Lin could be excused for wondering where all the mass hysteria he attracted last season has gone, but the Houston Rockets guard is not one to draw unnecessary attention to himself.

When Lin visited the Toronto Raptors in February he was a member of the New York Knicks, playing the best basketball of his career and the face of a global craze dubbed ‘Linsanity’ that transcended the sporting world.

But in Sunday’s 96-103 road loss to a weak Raptors team Lin had a pedestrian seven points, a far cry from the 27 he had in February when he made a game-winning three-pointer for the Knicks with under a second to play. “If I could turn it on like a switch like that easy I would obviously turn it on but that’s not how it works,” Lin told a group of reporters that paled in comparison to the crowed he drew in February when a special room was set up to accommodate the flood of media.

Houston’s off-season acquisition of Lin was made with hopes that he would build on the breakout run he enjoyed with New York, who only plugged him into their starting lineup after a rash of injuries.

Lin has shown flashes of brilliance that made him such an exciting figure, most recently a 38-point outburst over a solid San Antonio Spurs team last week that tied a career high for the 24-year-old Taiwanese-American. But he has failed to consistently deliver what the Rockets were hoping for when they lured him away from New York with a $25.1 million, three-year contract.

Just over a quarter of the way through the regular season, the man behind the ‘Linsanity’ craze has averaged 11 points, 4.1 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game for an 11-12 Rockets team that is ninth in a 15-team Western Conference where the top eight teams make the playoffs.

“I am not doing close to what I am capable of doing,” said Lin, who averaged 14.6 points in 35 games last season.