Jeremy Lin’s Scoring Could Be What Rockets Need In Playoffs…Or Not

He was on fire, that much was for sure.

In fact, Jeremy Lin has been playing at a steady and solid pace all March long before this past weekend, at one time averaging 16.8 points and 5.3 assists over 30.4 minutes in nine games heading into Friday's game against the Cavaliers. Coupled with his streak of three straight games with 20 points or more, and he was looking more like the point guard that Rockets brass had envisioned getting.

And as he has stabilized as a player, the Rockets have thrived with a much more formidable backcourt in Lin and James Harden, with added contributions from Chandler Parsons as the Rockets have won six of those nine games.

The Rockets' winning ways have continued through the weekend with a win against the Cavs Friday and a big victory over the San Antonio Spurs-whom beat them in three straight contests before-on Sunday. However, Lin's double-figure scoring did not continue, with the 24-year-old point guard scoring only four points on Friday and six points on Sunday in his two worst games this month.

After seeing both sides of Lin in a short amount of time this month, this once again poses an interesting question for the Rockets not only as they continue to fight for the No.6 seed with Golden State, but as they start eying the start of the playoffs next month-where exactly does Jeremy Lin fit in best?

Will the team thrive with him as more of an offensive threat, as he was during the previous week against the Timberwolves, Warriors and Jazz where he scored 20 points or more consecutively? Or does he thrive more in his now-regular role where he has limited shots but helps keep the ball fluid on Houston's league-leading offense (106.4 points per game)?

The last two games in fact saw a dramatic reduction almost across the board in virtually all categories from Lin's stats sheet. In the nine previous games before the weekend, Lin was taking 11.2 shot attempts over nine games. He only took seven shots on Friday and eight shots on Sunday. Compared to the 101 touches he got before that since the month began, and those 15 shots he was limited to over the weekend are a drastic difference.

In addition, there was the matter of his playing time, or rather lack of it. Lin played only 20 minutes on Friday and 27 against the Spurs, against whom he did fairly well during their last two meetings, on Sunday, which is short of the 30-minute baseline that he has averaged entering the game. With no reports of injury or any visible signs of struggle, the reduction in playing time for Lin came as something of a head-scratcher on Friday, especially.

In fact, the only numbers that were back up were Lin's assists. He dished out 5.5 assists-six on Friday and five on Sunday-during those games, which was a few small ticks higher than he had to start the month.

And yet, the Rockets won both those games during which Lin in his limited playing time was more of a ball facilitator rather than a scorer. In an offense again dominated with shots from Harden and Parsons, Lin became key in his usual role of playing off the ball and creating offensive opportunities for his fellow teammates.

Lin has been praised by Harden and Parsons last month for adjusting his game in order to fit Houston's style of play.

"James is a very dominant ball handler and I think he," Parsons said of Lin in a New York Times interview, "had to learn how to play off the ball better and he did great with that, learning when to cut, when not to cut."

Harden praised Lin on ESPN that month as well for "good job of leading, definitely by example" when it came to making his shots and other plays and doing a little of "everything."

But there is merit on the idea of Lin playing a larger part of offense as well.

All of the attention on defense will be focused on Harden, regardless of who the Rockets faces in the first round of the playoffs. With that said, it might not be a bad idea to have another scorer who can cut loose on offense and demand attention from opposing defenses in order to give Harden a little more breathing room to operate, and potentially create more shots for others.

Rockets coach Kevin McHale noted that after Lin had a big game against the Jazz March 20, especially after he scored 10 points in the third quarter en route to a 24-point night.

"I thought that Jeremy made some big hoops coming down the stretch when we needed them," McHale told the Associated Press. "They were really intent on staying with James in the second half and really not giving him a lot of room, so Jeremy really broke free."

Harden may be their All-Star and Parsons their second option on offense, but Lin remains the Rockets' not-so-secret weapon. He has demonstrated this month and other times this season that he has the ability to bust out with a big game on offense which catches opponents off guard (even when they probably should have learned their lesson after Lin's emergence last season in New York.)

The question of what to do with Lin--who told the Times last month that he needed to be more consistent--as the playoffs near is a big question for McHale to answer. Regardless of McHale's decision, whatever Lin's role for Houston when the playoffs start will be a crucial one--one that might even decide how far Houston goes this postseason.