MIAMI — Linsanity may hit the first round.

Jeremy Lin, out nearly a month following left knee surgery, may return against the Heat after all, depending on how far the Knicks can extend the opening-round series after yesterday’s devastating 100-67 Game 1 loss.

With Iman Shumpert out six to eight months after tearing his left ACL and meniscus yesterday and Baron Davis’ back ailing, Lin’s rehab schedule is being stepped up, though there are no guarantees.

Lin went through intense 1-on-1 drills filled with cutting against assistant coach Kenny Atkinson before the game. The Knicks are now somewhat hopeful — if Lin feels well in the next few days — the second-year point-guard sensation could return if the first-round series is extended. That would beat the six-week timetable from his arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus.

Make of that what you will. Not sure if it's a good idea- don't see how he can be in shape when he only started light jogging a week ago. And after watching Shump go down, I don't want him to re-injure it.

Shump is out. Who defends Wade?

So what do you do, rush back Lin? Push Amar'e? What happens if Chandler's wrist goes?

The Shump injury... What can I say? We have all types of cliches for it, from "when it rains, it pours" to "whatever can go wrong, WILL go wrong and times 100." Truth is, we still have enough firepower to make this a series, that is if the main star decides to show up on the scoreboard. Right now, however important it is to get Lin back, I'd rather get him when he IS back and not when he is just being rushed in.

SupremeCommander wrote:

nixluva wrote:Lin would have to be cleared before they'd let him play. He didn't have any reconstruction done. They cleaned up a tear. It's not the same thing as coming back from an ACL tear. I don't really see him coming back until maybe a game 6 or 7 so the team would have a lot of work to do.

if I recall, he had meniscus damage. Some posters didn't want to trade for Chris Paul because of that.

SupremeCommander wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:

nixluva wrote:Lin would have to be cleared before they'd let him play. He didn't have any reconstruction done. They cleaned up a tear. It's not the same thing as coming back from an ACL tear. I don't really see him coming back until maybe a game 6 or 7 so the team would have a lot of work to do.

if I recall, he had meniscus damage. Some posters didn't want to trade for Chris Paul because of that.

Paul didn't have meniscus damage. He had his meniscus REMOVED.

fair enough

Seems to me the speculation is from the writer who saw Lin work out before the game.

Remember, Amare was doing this for a while also.

Its a fans prerogative to indict anyone at any time but to insist Woodson is going to push the kid and ruin his career is a bit far fetched based on a single paragraph.