Carmelo to Lin: Take your time coming back

The New York Knicks were totally demolished, humiliated, undressed (pick a word) 100-67 in their playoff opening loss to the Miami Heat on Saturday.  The sight of Iman Shumpert being carried off the court with a torn left ACL only added injury to the insult but Carmelo Anthony still doesn't think it's time for Jeremy Lin to rush back and fill the gap.

In fact, the Knicks forward is advising the point guard to not come back at all against the Heat.

"No," Anthony said.  "We don't want him to rush it.  I've seen situations like that before.  That's something we do not want."

The horrible Game 1 injury to the rookie Shumpert may inspire Lin to attempt a hasty return, but considering that he hasn't played since March 24, it's likely that Lin could really effective.

Even when healthy, the Heat ate Lin up in their last meeting on Feb. 23 when he went 1-for-11 with eight turnovers.

Lin has been progressing from left knee surgery and has not ruled out returning for Game 4 on Sunday.

"I don't really want to make a promise because I just don't know how it's going to feel," Lin said on Sunday.  "If I felt good today, that would be more of a possibility, but I didn't feel that great today."

"I don't want to make myself vulnerable to something even worse,"  he added.

Meanwhile, Anthony knows he will be shouldering the burden of the Knicks offense but will not let the pressure get to him.

"Pressure?  I try not to play with pressure," he said.  "I go out there, I play ball."

It might be a little easier with healthy Lin at his side.