Jeremy Lin still sidelined for Nets on his bobblehead giveaway night

NEW YORK -- Jeremy Lin remains sidelined for the Brooklyn Nets on the night they are giving away his bobblehead.

Lin has battled a strained left hamstring almost all season and has been limited to 12 games in his first season with the Nets.

The giveaway Sunday against the Houston Rockets was part of the team's celebration of Taiwanese culture. Lin is the NBA's first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent.

Told about the bobblehead, Houston coach Mike D'Antoni, who coached Lin in New York, asked: "With the hairdo? So you can change the hair any way you want it?"

Lin, who has frequently changed his hairstyles, is depicted in braids on the bobblehead, the way he wore his hair about the time the Nets signed him over the summer.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.