Atlantic Rumors: Lin, Toney, Bargnani, Turner

Linsanity will be back in New York this week, if only for a few hours on Monday when the Rockets pay their lone visit of the season to the Knicks. Jeremy Lin knows the game will be special, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle writes. "It will be wild," said Lin, whose Rockets also travel to Toronto for a matinee Sunday versus the Raptors, who have a large Asian fan base. "It will be fun. I don’t really know what will happen exactly. We’re going to go out there as a team. It’s not about me or any individual. I’m going to go out there and try to play as hard as I can, have some fun. Whatever the crowds are like, I’m sure there will be a lot of energy."

Here are a couple more blasts from the Knicks' past and other notes from around the Atlantic.

• Lin isn't the only former Knicks point guard on the Rockets this year, and Toney Douglas, who came to Houston from New York as part of the Marcus Camby sign-and-trade this summer, will return to Madison Square Garden on a roll, Feigen notes. 
• Andrea Bargnani angrily denied the comments he was reported to have made to an Italian journalist, particulary his supposed assertion that the Raptors are the worst team in the league, as Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun notes (Sulia link). Bargnani told Raptors beat writers today that what he said in reference to the team's play was, "Nobody is satisfied. Not me, not DeMar, not coach, nobody."
• The Italian reporter, Davide Chinellato of Gazzetta.it, is standing by his story, and says he has a recording of what Bargnani said (Twitter link; hat tip to Sportando's Emiliano Carchia). 
• Dei Lynam of CSNPhilly.com posits that Evan Turner has become the best player from the 2010 draft. While that's probably open to debate, Lynam points to Turner's three-point shooting, which has jumped from 22.4% last year to 47.5% this season, and his ability to step in at point guard, as he did last night for the injured Jrue Holiday.
• In a Q&A with Joe Brescia of The New York Times, Patrick Ewing reiterated his desire to become an NBA head coach and said his son, Patrick Ewing Jr., has his eyes set on a return to the NBA as he plays in Germany for Telekom Baskets Bonn. The younger Ewing got a cup of coffee in the Association with the Hornets in 2010/11.