NEW YORK • Like every great story in the city that doesn't sleep, the Jeremy Lin saga just keeps evolving faster than the tabloids can crank out another whimsical headline to properly capture the delirium of this fascinating basketball dream.

Linsanity continues to morph into something different every time you look. Day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute. He is Horatio Alger. He is an ethnic pioneer. He's a breathless Twitter gem ("Ooooh, sweet pass!" "Arrgh ... bad turnover!"). He's a target, a hero, an overnight sensation, a lightning rod, a headline writer's greatest dream and worst nightmare.

But up close, in the pure and simple calm of this wonderful and crazy storm — when you see that slick, stutter-step, hesitation, rock back wicked crossover blur into the lane — you remember exactly what must be emphasized the longer this story goes on.

"Dude can flat-out play."

These are the words that describe it all and describe it best, and they were coming out of the mouth of the most famous New York Knicks fan of them all, film director Spike Lee. Lee was sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, nearly two hours before the start of New York's 104-97 victory over the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.

Lee was decked out in a crimson Harvard basketball jersey with Lin's name scrawled across the back. Two nights earlier, Lee broke out Lin's high school jersey. There is no end to the lengths Spike will go to pay proper homage to the player he believes has saved the franchise from sinking into oblivion (Anyone know where to get a Jeremy Lin AAU jersey?).

"He brought the team together," said Lee. "The Knicks were in disarray. People were looking at (them) and wondering when spring training would start. It could have been even worse if not for the Super Bowl run the Giants went on because for most of December and January no one was really paying attention to the Knicks. But as soon as the Super Bowl was over, it was like, 'Whoa, what's going on here?'"

What was going on was a basketball team falling into irrelevance. The Garden had turned into a tomb as the Knicks fell to 8-15 and out of playoff contention. Then out of total desperation, head coach Mike D'Antoni decided to look all the way down at the end of his bench and give Lin a try at point guard, and wild and crazy things started happening.

Linsanity.

The Asian-American kid from Harvard got his chance and took off. He's averaged 25 points, 8.3 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 2.2 steals over the last nine games, led New York to an 8-1 record, transformed the Knicks into playoff contenders, created one of the best sports stories we've ever seen, and became the newest prince of the big city.

And he did it all without the $15-million-a-year superstar Carmelo Anthony in the lineup. And now Anthony is expected from the injured list tonight against the New Jersey Nets, and some folks in the city are acting as though Anthony — one of the best pure scorers in the NBA — is some insidious virus destined to ruin it all.

And so this is the Linsanity of the moment. Carmelo as villain.

Keep in mind that barely a year ago, Carmelo was savior, hero, toast of the town. But quicker than a New York minute, he is the unwelcome guest at the Jeremy Lin party to some folks in this town who don't know all that much about basketball, but plenty about stirring sensational emotions.

So here was Spike Lee on Sunday morning watching Anthony shooting baskets and sweating up a storm as he got in one final workout before his return. "Anyone who says that Melo is going to be a problem doesn't understand basketball," said Lee, "and I'll give you the perfect example of what I'm talking about."

He slowly glanced back over his shoulder and pointed up to the Garden rafters where all the championship banners and retired jerseys hang. "Look right there," he said. "See No. 15? They said the same thing about Earl 'The Pearl' Monroe when he came here, didn't they?"

Then he motions a few feet to the left to another retired jersey with No. 10 on it.

"They said Earl could never play alongside Waly Frazier," said Lee. "They said it would never work. But Red Holzman didn't think so. Dave DeBusschere didn't think so. And that's why we had that other banner up there, the one that says the Knicks won the NBA title in 1972-73. Earl toned his game down because he wanted to get a ring. So why does everyone think that Carmelo can't do the same thing? He wants a ring, too."

There has been a lot of talk around here about how there may not be enough basketballs or minutes to satisfy the offensive cravings of Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire, Baron Davis and the newly acquired mad shooter JR Smith. But on Sunday, Lin showed why a lot of that is so much silly talk.

Lin wowed a nationally televised audience with 28 points and 14 assists, finding new ways to get shots for everyone. He took apart a very good defensive team in the Mavericks, who used 6-foot-7 Shawn Marion as an on-ball defender against Lin early in the game, then double-teamed him at the three-point line with 7-foot center Brendan Haywood trying to get the ball out of Lin's hands and disrupt the Knicks' offense. But Lin has a wonderful understanding of D'Antoni's free-flowing offense. He knows how to get the ball in the right people's hands, how to attack a defense and how to make sure that everyone on the floor gets to the right spots to make things flow beautifully.

On Sunday, six players scored in double figures and all eight Knicks players had between five and 20 shots. Lin was dropping assists into the hands of everyone off picks and rolls, dissecting double teams and either getting to the rim on slick drives into the lane or knocking down nasty 3-point jumpers when it mattered most.

"He had a few turnovers (actually more than a few: seven)," said D'Antoni, "but with the game he had (playing a stunning 45½ minutes), that's ridiculous. It seems like at the heart of the moment, the better he shoots the ball. He makes big plays. He''s definitely fearless."

And now he gets Anthony and his 22.3 points a game average back tonight, and things should only get better, not worse. This is the same Carmelo Anthony who is a five-time NBA All-Star who has averaged more than 25 points in a season five times, led the USA national team in scoring in 2006 and 2007, averaging more than 20 points a game, then unselfishly toned down his scoring act for the 2008 Olympic team that included Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Jason Kidd (11 points, 4.3 rebounds) so they could win a gold medal.

So once again, I'd like to know, how is this his return supposed to be a bad thing?

"I understand there's always going to be naysayers," said Steve Novak, the Knicks' reserve sharpshooter who drained four of five 3-pointers on Sunday and finished with 14 points. "But if you love the game of basketball and understand it, you know what's about to happen to us when we get Carmelo Anthony back. You have to know that's not a bad thing, right?"