NEW YORK – Jeremy Lin had the most astounding performance of his remarkable week, scoring a career-high 38 points and outdueling Kobe Bryant as the New York Knicks held off the Los Angeles Lakers 92-85 on Friday night.

Buried deep on the bench a little more than a week ago, Lin led the Knicks to their fourth straight win, tying their longest streak of the season. His two free throws with 52 seconds left and “MVP! MVP!” chants booming stopped the Lakers’ final rally and allowed the undrafted Harvard product to pass Carmelo Anthony for the highest-scoring game by a Knicks player this season.

Iman Shumpert added 12 points for the Knicks, who are still without Anthony and Amare Stoudemire. But they have Lin, the point guard that two other teams gave up on in December and didn’t get his chance in New York until three other players couldn’t do the job.

Bryant finished with 34 points, but he got off to a horrendous start and finished only 11 of 29 from the field.

GRIZZLIES 98, PACERS 92: Rudy Gay scored 21 points, Marreese Speights added a season-high 19 points and nine rebounds, and Memphis won at home.

BUCKS 113, CAVALIERS 112: Brandon Jennings scored 24 points and made a big layup in overtime as Milwaukee won at Cleveland.

MAVERICKS 104, TIMBERWOLVES 97: Dirk Nowitzki welcomed Kevin Love back from his two-game suspension with a season-high 33 points, winning the matchup of Western Conference All-Star power forwards and helping Dallas win at Minneapolis.

TRAIL BLAZERS 94, HORNETS 86: Jamal Crawford scored a season-high 31 points as visiting Portland handed New Orleans its eighth straight loss.

PISTONS 109, NETS 92: Greg Monroe had 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Detroit routed visiting New Jersey for its fourth straight victory.

BULLS 95, BOBCATS 64: Joakim Noah had 17 points and 14 rebounds, Carlos Boozer scored 16 points and Chicago throttled host Charlotte despite the absence of reigning MVP Derrick Rose, who sat out because of a lower back strain.

HEAT 106, WIZARDS 89: Dwyane Wade scored 26 points, Chris Bosh had 24 points and 11 rebounds, and LeBron James tallied 18 points and nine assists as Miami won at Washington.

HAWKS 89, MAGIC 87: Josh Smith had 23 points and 19 rebounds, and Atlanta hit enough free throws late in overtime to win at Orlando, Fla.

CLIPPERS 78, SIXERS 77: Chris Paul had 24 points, including the winning 17-footer with 3.2 seconds left, Blake Griffin added 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Los Angeles won at Philadelphia.

NOTES

Cavaliers rookie Kyrie Irving will miss the next two home games with a concussion.