(L)incomplete: Linsanity ends with (l)injury

So the craze that swept the basketball world off its feet more than a month ago is officially over.

Jeremy Lin, the ultra-charismatic New York playmaker, is probably out for the season as he will undergo surgery next week for a torn meniscus – a development that deals the Knicks’ playoff hopes a telling blow.

What was once a gripping and fascinating ascent to basketball relevance ended in a whimper for Lin, who starred in Harvard, got undrafted, and bounced around NBA teams and was relegated to the D-League before New York finally gave him the chance to shine. And he did not disappoint.

That is now a thing of the past as the Knicks are trying to move on with their playoff push without Lin. Add to that the fact that they are also missing prized forward Amare Stoudemire, who is out with a bulging disk in his back and is also in danger of bidding the season goodbye.

In an interview with ESPN, New York coach Mike Woodson said that while Lin is a “big piece” of their puzzle, they will try to make do with what they have until the Asian-American point guard gets back into shape.

“We’ve got to go on,” he said. “All is not bad – we have three veteran point guards sitting over there. We will anxiously wait for him to get better.”

Trying to fill the huge void left by Lin are Baron Davis and Mike Bibby – old playmakers with 25 years of NBA experience between them but little to no relevance over the past three years.

A rash of injuries has limited Davis to only 19 games this season and though he was once an explosive scorer and efficient ball-distributor, it is obvious that the six-foot-three Los Angeles native is well past his prime and could not take over an offense like he used to.

He is talented, yes, but his conditioning puts a cloud of doubt over every action he will make as a Knick, and in this time when the team needs Davis to contribute for an extended period of time, even Woodson asserts that he will not play the 32-year-old the 30-plus minutes needed of him in games.

However, the only option for the New York faithful is to hope and pray that Davis comes out swinging and prove his doubters wrong. And this is not entirely impossible.

In two games when he played more than 30 minutes, Davis normed 11 points, eight assists, five rebounds and 1.5 steals. The drawback, though, is that he shot a pathetic 31.8 percent from the field, 25 percent from rainbow territory and committed nine turnovers in a single outing.

For Bibby, it’s more about just getting the chance to strut his stuff again. He is averaging a career-low 12.5 minutes per game and has passed the 20-minute mark just thrice this season, all in the first month.

He is not as reliable as he used to be, when he torched defenses as a deadly marksman with Sacramento, but consistent playing time even as a backup will definitely give him confidence and the swagger that's definitely lacking right now.

Rookie Iman Shumpert can play the point, too, but has shown to be more effective playing the two position and has tallied more than five assists only thrice in 46 games. Toney Douglas is a scorer who’s on the rut after being thrown at the end of the rotation.

Yes, there are a number of options that the Knicks can go to now that Linsanity is officially over. Choose from a couple of old and slow playmakers or a duo of guards who do not necessarily possess the ability and the knack to orchestrate an offense.

Jeremy Lin, you will be missed.