Dec 17, 2015; Charlotte, NC, USA; Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lin (7) fights Toronto Raptors forward Patrick Patterson (54) for the rebound during the first half of the game at Time Warner Cable Arena.
It happens so frequently now that Jeremy Lin doesn’t even bother wasting the energy to get annoyed by it too much these days.
Still, as the first American-born NBA player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, there are some arenas in which Lin might be better off simply leaving on his game-worn, official No. 7 Charlotte Hornets jersey at all times — from the moment he gets off the team bus until he returns to it after games.
Otherwise, he’s likely to get stopped and carded by some security official.
“It’s one of those things where it literally happens everywhere,” Lin told ESPN.com after Thursday’s practice in Detroit, where the Hornets will play the Pistons on Friday. “At opposing arenas, it happens all the time. Just the other night in Brooklyn, I was trying to leave [Barclays Center] and one of the ladies was like, ‘Hey, I need your credentials for you to pass.’ And then someone else was like, ‘Oh, he’s a player. He’s good.’ I’m used to it by now. It’s just part of being Asian in the NBA.”
Lin laughed as he relayed the story. It’s part of his coping mechanism, but it’s also Lin’s way of shrugging off distractions and keeping things moving. Times are too good right now for his surging Hornets to allow anyone’s silly identification issues to disrupt their momentum.
At this rate, Lin and the Hornets only care to be recognized as a legitimate contender in the East, one as capable as anyone of finishing the season strong and rolling through the conference playoff race.
Just check their credentials.
Sparked by huge come-from-behind victories at Miami and at home over San Antonio in recent days, Charlotte (41-30) enters Friday’s game at Detroit (38-34) as the East’s hottest team since Feb. 1. The Hornets have gone 18-5 over an eight-week stretch during which only the Golden State Warriors and Spurs have posted better records in the league.
Charlotte sits sixth in the East, but is among four teams separated in the standings by one game for a shot at the No. 3 seed behind Cleveland and Toronto. The top four seeds host a first-round playoff series, and if the Hornets can secure one of those spots over the final 11 games, it would be a first for them since the NBA franchise returned to Charlotte in 2004.
The Hornets also own another unique distinction as the only team in the league this season to post both losing and winning streaks of at least seven games. But after a turbulent stretch in January, when they returned from a West Coast trip ravaged by injuries and chemistry problems, the Hornets made a key trade to acquire veteran guard Courtney Lee. Charlotte stabilized their playing rotation and received a significant boost from center Al Jefferson‘s return after a two-month absence to recover from a knee injury.
“We were just talking about it the other day — at one point, we were like 17-20 and going through that rough stretch with two January trips out west,” Lin said. “But I remember us at that point, and we were kind of like, ‘Hey, it’s got to be now or never. We know what we’re capable of … we really have to lock in now.’ And now, we’re like at 40 wins.”
What transpired was a transformation in which coach Steve Clifford demanded more defensive accountability from a team he had already freed up to play more of an open, up-tempo, 3-point jacking style on the other side of the ball. Essentially, Jefferson’s early injury opened the door for the Hornets to chuck their plodding, post-heavy system. The offseason acquisitions of versatile swingman Nicolas Batum and Lin, the trade for Lee and the resurgence of veteran forward Marvin Williams gave Charlotte the interchangeable talent to spread the floor, run and shoot a ton of 3-pointers.
Suddenly, at least schematically, they became a poor man’s Warriors.
BCNN1 WP 