 After the team 's poor 5 – 15 start , Scott attempted to improve the Lakers ' poor defense by moving Lin to the bench in favor of the journeyman Price . Lin was disappointed in the demotion , calling it " one of the toughest situations I 've been in " . On January 23 , 2015 , Scott promoted rookie Jordan Clarkson to start over Price and chose not to play a healthy Lin in a blowout loss to San Antonio , which the Lakers trailed by as much as 23 while playing without Kobe Bryant . Lin had previously played in each game of the season , averaging 10 @.@ 5 points and 4 @.@ 5 assists in 43 games . It was the first time he was healthy and did not play since February 2 , 2012 , two days before he logged then @-@ career highs against New Jersey at the dawn of Linsanity . After Lin scored a season @-@ high 29 on March 22 in a win over Philadelphia , Scott returned him to the starting lineup . On March 24 , Lin and teammate Clarkson , who is part Filipino , became the first Asian Americans to start together in the backcourt in NBA history . Lin missed the last five games of the season due to an upper respiratory infection . 
