According to Howard Beck of the New York Times, New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin is out six weeks with a small tear in his knee.

Jeremy Lin is out 6 weeks w/small,chronic meniscal tear in knee, team says

— Howard Beck (@HowardBeckNYT) March 31, 2012

Knicks head coach, Mike Woodson, said "It's a big blow", referring to the loss of Lin, who's reportedly headed for arthroscopic knee surgery.

Lin had missed the previous three games for the Knicks with what was being called a "sore knee". The Knicks went 2-1 in those games, but lost by 10 to the Hawks on Friday.

"Linsanity" has died down quite a bit since his inception, but this is still a huge loss for the Knicks, who are fighting to fend off the Milwaukee Bucks for the last spot in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Lin is averaging 14.6 points and 6.1 assists per game. The Knicks are also without the services of Amare Stoudemire and Jared Jeffries for at least the next couple of weeks.

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