The Jeremy Lin story keeps getting more amazing. Naturally, some were questioning whether this kid from Harvard could sustain his incredible run against the Los Angeles Lakers, and then Lin went out and dropped 38 points on them.

Stop the Lin-sanity? The Lakers tried and tried. And failed. Badly.

The New York Knicks rolled over the Lakers, embarrassed them, really, fielding a lineup that would be laughable if not for Jeremy Lin.

The Lakers weren’t amused after Lin had 38 points and seven assists in the Knicks’ 92-85 victory Friday at Madison Square Garden.

Kobe Bryant was seething after the game, kicking a trash can in the locker room before quietly stewing at his locker in the corner. Lakers Coach Mike Brown tore into the team, telling players they needed to compete much better than the alleged 48 minutes they’d just logged.

It was another head-scratcher for the Lakers (15-12) in a season already filled with them.

This is a great story, though you have to wonder why Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni waited so long to play the kid. If it weren’t for injuries, the kid would still be wasting away on the bench. Didn’t he show off these skills in practice?

In any event, the NBA has a new star, at least for the moment. Let’s see if the Lin show continues.

Once the dust settles and the Carmelo trade becomes final, the Knicks are looking at a starting five of Chauncey Billups, Landry Fields, Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and probably Ronny Turiaf at center. The Knicks will be solid at point guard through power forward, but Turiaf is at best an average center who gets by on hustle and hard work. Per 82games, he does tend to outplay his counterpart (15.0 vs. 13.3 PER) which is a good sign because his minutes are going to jump.

Turiaf is going to need to play well for the Knicks to do anything in the postseason because the team is now very thin in the frontcourt. They lost two 6-10 or taller players (Danilo Gallinari and Timofey Mozgov) and are likely to lose 6-11 Anthony Randolph as well. In return, 6-9 Shelden Williams is the only bona fide power forward or center they’ll acquire, and he hasn’t done much in his 4+ year career to indicate that he can play significant minutes on a good playoff team.

This lack of frontcourt depth could be a problem because both the Celtics (Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett) and the Magic (Dwight Howard) have big men who are adept at scoring on the block. The Celtics are less of a concern at center because Doc Rivers usually uses Glen Davis to finish games instead of O’Neal (or Kendrick Perkins, for that matter).

Against the Heat or Bulls, the Knicks should fare better. Chris Bosh is not terribly good on the block and the Heat prefer to play Joel Anthony at center. Joakim Noah is a great defensive center, but his post up game is limited, so Turiaf (or Stoudemire, in a pinch) shouldn’t be overmatched on the block.

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Per ESPN…

“I think my decision is my decision,” Anthony said, according to The Denver Post. “I don’t think it’s based on who is in the front office or anything like that. I’m going to make my decision based on my feelings.”

“I could wake up tomorrow and they could snatch it off the table,” Anthony said, according to the Denver newspaper. “I don’t know. I don’t know what their mind-set is.”

Anthony said his loyalty to the Nuggets’ fanbase and organization has never wavered.

“I’ve shown that over my seven-year stint here,” he said, according to The Denver Post. “I don’t think anybody can question that. But at this point in time, I have to do what’s best for me and my family. I’m just taking my time, figuring out if I want to take that extension or not.”

Lest there be any confusion, this is not a negotiating tactic to coax a better deal out of the Nuggets. Denver’s offer of $65 million over three years would give Anthony financial security in a time when there’s a new, owner-friendly collective bargaining agreement on the horizon. And let’s not gloss over the risk of injury either. If Anthony were to blow out his knee (a la Michael Redd), he could be leaving millions on the table.

If this were about money, Anthony would have already signed. This is about whether or not he wants to continue his career with the Nuggets. If he plays out the season without signing the extension, he’ll become the prize of the 2011 free agent class and could potentially ‘take his talents’ to the Big Apple.

Most pundits feel that this is about the Knicks, and I tend to agree. He’d be a nice fit in Mike D’Antoni’s system with Amare Stoudemire and an outside shot at teaming up with Chris Paul in 2012. But don’t overlook the Nets, who will be moving to Brooklyn in two years and have several attractive young pieces — Brook Lopez, Derrick Favors, Devin Harris — who might appeal to Anthony.

However, if he does indeed become a free agent, the Knicks are the frontrunner — there’s no doubt about it.

If I were a Nuggets fan, I’d be very, very worried. The writing is on the wall, but it’s nothing that a run to the Finals can’t fix.

I wrote quite a bit about this possible pairing a few days ago, but after flirting for a few more days, the two sides finally came together on an agreement.

The Knicks said Monday they intend to sign Stoudemire to a contract later this week when the free agent moratorium period ends. Stoudemire’s agent, Happy Walters, said the deal is for the maximum allowed, which would be nearly $100 million over five years.

Wearing a blue Knicks hat, Stoudemire said he looked forward to rebuilding a franchise and bringing the Knicks back to the top — maybe with a player such as LeBron James or Dwyane Wade with him.

Team president Donnie Walsh said the Knicks decided to pull the trigger on the Stoudemire deal because he was the only player that has told the Knicks thus far that he wants to play for them.

The Stoudemire agreement takes the Knicks out of the running for Chris Bosh, but New York has been assured it will not be an impediment to their chances of signing James or Wade, sources told ESPN.com’s Chris Sheridan and Chris Broussard.

Interesting phrase there — “it will not be an impediment to their chances of signing James or Wade” — which can mean one of three things: 1) James and Wade like Stoudemire as much as Bosh, 2) they’re both willing to play with Stoudemire if push came to shove, or 3) neither guy is going to sign with the Knicks, so it doesn’t matter.

I’m betting on No. 2.

Stoudemire met with head coach Mike D’Antoni to clear the air that apparently became smoggy during the duo’s tenure in Phoenix. Stoudemire apparently admitted that he was a little immature at times during D’Antoni’s reign and the two clashed as a result. I’d expect them to work well together; Stoudemire is the ideal center for D’Antoni’s up tempo system.

The other line that I think is funny is the part about Donnie Walsh saying that the team pulled the trigger on Amare because he was the only one willing to commit. It makes sense — the Knicks are offering him the max and at his age with his injury history, he’s not really a max player. Of course he’s going to jump on all of this guaranteed money.

Now, will his presence get LeBron or Wade to join the Knicks? I doubt it. But there are a few other possibilities out there.

Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni will miss practice to testify about his interaction with Stephon Marbury earlier this season when the guard allegedly refused to play in a game against the Pistons.

They’ll be back in each others’ faces Tuesday, and the hearing will force coach Mike D’Antoni to miss practice while he testifies before grievance arbitrator Calvin Sharpe, a Case Western Reserve University law professor, to recount exactly what was said on that November day at a suburban Detroit hotel when D’Antoni purportedly told Marbury he wanted him in the lineup that night and was prepared to give him regular playing time going forward.

Marbury has said his response was something along the lines of “I thought y’all were going in a different direction,” and he has maintained that he was careful not to say anything that could be construed as a refusal because that would technically put him in violation — if not breach — of his contract.

Marbury asked for an expedited grievance hearing, and the hearing will convene at 10 a.m. with Marbury, Walsh, D’Antoni and a handful of lawyers in attendance.

“I’ll have to [say] what happened, the way I saw things,” said D’Antoni, who also appeared less than thrilled at the prospect of spending several hours in a law office conference room sitting across the table from the one person who has managed to keep himself a sideshow and a distraction throughout this season.

The Knicks hold all the cards here, and unlike most NBA franchises, they are used to the media circus. I’d say two teams could handle having Marbury sidelined the entire season — the Knicks and the Lakers. With Marbury only offering $1 million in unpaid salary to secure his release, there isn’t much incentive for the Knicks to let him go. The Knicks are just 2 1/2 games out of the 8th spot in the East, and could very well face the Celtics in the first round in the playoffs. They’d gladly pay $1 million so that he can’t come back to bite them in the playoffs.

I don’t understand why Marbury didn’t take the Knicks $3 million offer. He needs to get his career back on track and he’s not going to be able to do that as long as he’s with the Knicks.

The trade deadline is Thursday, and trade talk is really heating up. Marc Stein gives us the latest.

Two rival executives we spoke with Sunday night immediately wondered whether the Suns’ decision to replace Terry Porter with Alvin Gentry would convince Phoenix to “tap the brakes,” as one put it, on its Stoudemire talks. If the Suns are going to try to recapture a semblance of what they had under Mike D’Antoni, with the only holdover from D’Antoni’s staff taking over, you can understand why Gentry would prefer to have Stoudemire for the rest of the season to help the cause.

Stoudemire is still under contract for another season, so it wouldn’t hurt the Suns if they wanted to see what Gentry could do with this group before moving their star player over the summer. I’d say that the Porter firing makes it more likely that Stoudemire stays put, though I’d still put the chances at better than 50/50 that Amare is moved before the trade deadline.

One scapegoat is out. Could the Suns move the other — Amare Stoudemire — before Thursday’s trade deadline?

Terry Porter was fired as coach of the Phoenix Suns, just four months into his first season with the club and the team barely in playoff contention.

Porter told The Associated Press on Monday morning that Suns general manager Steve Kerr broke the news to him at a Sunday night meeting.

“I’m going to wait a few days to gather my thoughts before I say anything,” Porter said.

Assistant coach Alvin Gentry will replace Porter, although the Suns have not yet made an announcement concerning their coaching situation.

orter was in the first year of a three-year, $6 million deal to replace Mike D’Antoni, who left after four highly successful seasons to coach the New York Knicks.

D’Antoni is a coach who lets his players run and shoot, and maybe play defense once in a while. It was Kerr’s insistence on emphasizing defense that led, in large part, to D’Antoni’s departure. Porter wanted a defense-oriented team in the tough mold of the Detroit Pistons.

It was a bad fit.

I don’t know why you sign a coach to a three-year contract only to fire him halfway through his first season. Either you have faith in the guy or you don’t. If you have enough faith in a coach to give him a contract worth $6 million, then you should have enough patience to let him coach out the year. It’s not like the Suns are 11-40 and out of the playoff race.

But the bottom line is that the Suns never should have let Mike D’Antoni go. This is just another in a long line of suspect decisions by the Suns’ management.

Jeff Van Gundy says that he isn’t going to return to coaching for the foreseeable future.

“Without question, I miss coaching,” Van Gundy said. “I miss the competitiveness, the camaraderie there is no doubt about that. With that being said. I’m just happier with what I am doing.”

He wasn’t afraid to criticize a couple of players in the same interview.

Van Gundy was mostly complimentary of the Knicks’ new regime during an interview for Friday’s NYP TV Sports, but did criticize a couple of players who are weighing down the team’s future.

“Where as Isiah Thomas believed in the post offense, Mike D’Antoni has a much different style, obviously and has little use for [Eddy] Curry,” Van Gundy, who turned 47 yesterday, said.

“Here you have a guy that has a bad heart and a big contract and he would be very hard to move to another team, whose plan he would fit into. And Jerome James Jerome James , I don’t know whose plan he would fit into. And they also drag down your work ethic. You have guys that are out of shape it’s a drag on your team. Because what’s that saying to the other players is that they don’t care as much about the team.”

Van Gundy has developed into one of the top color commentators in all of basketball. I don’t have much use for Mark Jackson, but Van Gundy is knowledgeable and self-deprecating, and along with Mike Breen, the trio makes for good announcing. Van Gundy and Jackson tease each other and argue about hoops, while Breen plays the straight guy. It works.

That said, I’d like to see what Van Gundy could do with a few of the teams on the cusp of success. His brother, Stan Van Gundy, is the frontrunner for Coach of the Year honors with what he’s doing in Orlando, and I think Jeff would have similar success.

The Knicks have suspended Stephon Marbury for two games for refusing to play.

In addition, the Knicks have clarified that Marbury actually will lose two games’ pay — or almost $400,000. Besides the one-game suspension without pay for refusing to play at Detroit on Wednesday night, Marbury also has been fined another game check for refusing to play last Friday at Milwaukee.

Clearly, Marbury knows his run with the Knicks is over. He broke his relative silence in an exclusive interview with a New York Post reporter whose coverage has been favorable to the Coney Island native. In an article published today, Marbury said of D’Antoni, “I wouldn’t trust him to walk my dog across the street.”

This makes me sick, but not for the reasons you might think. I’m sick because Marbury’s pay for two games is $400,000.

I don’t really care about which side treated the other with more disrespect. The Knicks say that Starbury refused to play and he says that he never said that he wouldn’t. There is a rumor that Mike D’Antoni offered the starting shooting guard slot — for the rest of the season, no less — which would obviously be a plan to showcase him before the trade deadline. But the Knicks won’t really gain anything in a trade unless they can get a draft pick or a cheap prospect. They don’t want to take on additional salary because it will jeopardize their chances to land LeBron in two years.

The two sides need to negotiate a buyout deal and end the relationship. The main hurdle there is that Marbury is acting as his own agent, so there isn’t a level-headed lawyer giving him advice. So let me step in…

The best thing for both parties is a buyout, but Marbury needs to be willing to back off his “not a penny less� demands. He’s not going to get much of a contract next summer if he doesn’t play this year, and he’s not going to play this year unless he signs with another team. He should take a buyout of $10-$12 million, and sign a one-year deal with a team that could use him. If he plays well, he’d be in a position to sign a 2-3 year deal for decent money ($4-$5 million per season?). If he stands his ground and demands the full salary, the Knicks could punish him for his unwillingness to compromise by continuing to pay him for the season, but banishing him from the team, like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did with Keyshawn Johnson a few years back. If they went that route, the decision would be made and it may (I repeat, “may�) cease to be a story. (After all, this is the NY media we’re talking about.)

What a mess.

Zach Randolph has joined the Clippers, but he can’t play until Cuttino Mobley sees a heart specialist.

The source said Mobley would see a heart specialist on Tuesday.

When asked about ESPN.com’s report by reporters after the Clippers game on Monday, coach Mike Dunleavy said: “From the standpoint of Cuttino’s concern, there’s nothing they have or don’t have that hasn’t been known to us or hasn’t been approved by us and all the other teams he’s played for. Neither one of those guys has had any issues with any of the things that are even being talked about.

“All I know is that if Cuttino has anything, he’s been asymptomatic,” Dunleavy said. “He’s never had any issue with us. There’s never been one time that he missed a practice or missed a game or had any issues in any physical of any kind for us. I mean, I’ve been told by our doctors that the things that are under concern is not something that we haven’t known about or have had any issues with. So hopefully, it won’t be an issue.”

Another source told ESPN.com that Mobley’s condition has been present throughout his career and has never been a grave concern, although the Knicks were prudent in their diligence.

On the surface it would be hard to imagine the Knicks wanting to void the trade because they achieved their goal of clearing Randolph’s contract (which carried two more years and $33.3 million after this season).

No disrespect to Cuttino Mobley, but why would the Knicks even care if he has a heart condition? This trade is mostly a salary dump, though there is the possibility that Mobley and Tim Thomas may see some minutes this season. But really, if Mobley weren’t able to play, would the Knicks really take Randolph (and his salary) back?

If your goal is to free up cap space to make a run at LeBron James in 2010, and you’ve successfully found a sucker to take on Zach Randolph’s contract, then why would you jeopardize it by holding up the deal?

Click here for an in-depth analysis of how the Randolph trade affects the Knicks’ future salary cap flexibility.