Lin helping Knicks draw huge ratings on MSG

NEW YORK (AP) — Jeremy Lin has people watching the New York Knicks in record numbers.

The Knicks said Tuesday that their past two games were the highest-rated regular season events on MSG since the network began tracking household ratings in the 1988-89 season.

Losses to New Orleans on Friday and New Jersey on Monday were each watched in more than 540,000 households and drew ratings above 7.3.

That easily beat the previous high in the regular season, a 6.78 rating for Michael Jordan's famed "double-nickel" game on March 28, 1995, when he scored 55 points in his first game back at Madison Square Garden since ending his retirement.

The Knicks also announced that an online auction for the autographed jersey Lin wore in a victory over the Lakers, plus four tickets to Wednesday's game against Atlanta and a chance to meet the former Harvard star, raised $42,388 for the Garden of Dreams Foundation.