There's no other way to put it: Jeremy Lin played very, very badly in the Knicks' loss to the Miami Heat last night. But credit where credit is due, and most of it should go to the Heat—they are 27-7, after all—and the way they completely and utterly stifled Lin at every turn. "I can't remember another game where it was hard to just take dribbles," Lin said after the loss. Coach Mike D'Antoni was more literary about it: “It’s hard to be Peter Pan every day. They were geeked up for him."

That's a notion which Heat players have been downplaying: "It is not a specific plan," Miami Coach Erik Spoelstra claimed. "What we wanted to do was treat him with the adequate respect that he deserves." LeBron James echoed his sentiment: "We wanted to make guys uncomfortable. Does it work all time? I'm not going to say yes because we have great players in this league. Lin is a great player."

But others weren't so convinced by their "modesty:" ESPN thinks that Linsanity got to the Heat in the days leading up to the highly anticipated game. "But by this Thursday, after another week of Lin this and Lin that and days of questions about Lin, Lin, Lin? They were so over it. The fad hadn't just run its course with the Heat, it has turned to defiance and perhaps even a shred of jealousy," wrote Brian Windhorst. After all, the Heat are playing the best basketball in the league right now, and they're being overshadowed on Sportscenter every night by the 23-year-old sudden sensation.

Deadspin agreed with that assessment, but they're keeping the glass half-full for now: "So Lin's human, and he's exhausted by the compressed schedule, and he has off nights, and he can be shut down with a little aggression, and Carmelo ruins the flow, and the Knicks haven't had time to gel, and you can mix and match all of these explanations/excuses for your favored post-mortem today."

With the All-Star break here, the Knicks only have two games in the next 10 days, which will finally give them a little time to start gelling as a unit in practice. With the addition of JR Smith and return of Baron Davis, the team has one of the deepest benches in the league—so maybe when they face the Heat again on April 15, they'll be more ready for the challenge.

Despite the "break," Lin isn't exactly getting a day off just yet: he headed to Orlando this morning to take part in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge tonight. And he also fit in some time for yard work too!