The Linsanity hype machine, growing more monstrous by the day, has descended upon Miami. The treatment for this epic drama is very simple: The NBA’s two biggest story lines of the last two seasons collide on Thursday night at AmericanAirlines Arena, when the Heat plays host to Jeremy Lin and the Knicks.

For a regular-season game on the day before the All-Star break, it doesn’t get any bigger. Miami is an event town and this certainly qualifies. Some court-level seats are pushing $10,000 on the secondary market. Smiling celebrities will jostle to be seen. The nationally televised game should be a ratings buster.

“Everyone knows the history between the Knicks and Heat, then you bring in the Jeremy Lin Linsation, you bring in the Miami Heat, Carmelo Anthony and those guys and Amare Stoudemire, Spike Lee, Pat Riley and all that and it’s a huge game,” LeBron James said.

The competing narratives are clearly defined.

The Heat, arguably playing the best basketball in the league, features a cache of stars still stinging from last June’s postseason collapse. A rejuvenated Dwyane Wade is currently playing like a man on fire, James is the front-runner for the MVP Award and the Heat (26-7) has won seven consecutive games by double figures.

And, of course, outside of South Florida everyone still hates the Heat.

The Knicks, fighting for a spot in the playoffs, recently have found new life in Lin, the Taiwanese-American point guard who has morphed into basketball’s version of Tim Tebow. The Knicks (17-17) are 9-2 since Lin forced his way into the coach Mike D’Antoni’s starting lineup on Feb. 6.

“He’s a good player; he does good things for their team,” James said of Lin. “They were looking for a point guard and they found one.”

Lin represents something of an organic rags-to-riches tale.

Cut twice this season by the Warriors and Rockets, he scratched his way onto the Knicks’ roster at the exact moment D’Antoni was desperate for a point guard to run his offense. Fate shines on preparation and Lin, who played college ball at Harvard, found himself a ready-made lottery winner of circumstance.

“Coach D’Antoni’s system is easy to equip to,” James said. “Me being in the system, being with the Olympic team, it’s free-range on offense. It’s open and guys have equal opportunity to play basketball.

“It’s not as complicated as a lot of systems and that’s why people succeed in it, but you have to good as well to succeed in it.”

Since his emergence just a few weeks ago, Lin has become an international celebrity. This week his smiling mug landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the second consecutive week, a rare honor in the history of the magazine.

Throw in the fact that Lin was sleeping on his brother’s coach in New York until the Knicks guaranteed his minimum-salary contract and you have the framework of a classic American story in the vein of Horatio Alger — hard work pays off.

While Wade is keeping Thursday’s game in perspective, he still has respect for Lin and what he has accomplished considering the circumstances, going from an obscure NBA reserve to the toast of professional sports almost overnight.

In a small way, Wade can relate. After all, he was a lightly recruited guard in college who sat out a season before getting a chance to star at Marquette. Wade made the most of his opportunity on the collegiate level, leading his team to the Final Four.

Of course, Lin’s unimaginable rise to fame is something much different and Wade appreciates his story.

“It’s tough, because no one has really had that kind of spotlight that fast,” Wade said. “What he’s dealing with is on another scale and it seems like he’s doing a great job dealing with it.

“Obviously he’s a tough-minded guy to go through things he’s went through with being cut twice in one year and to come and perform at the level he’s performed at.”

James has done his part to fuel the buzz, calling the second meeting this season between the Heat and Knicks “electrifying” and saying “it could be one of the most watched games we’ve had in a long time.”

Unlike James, Wade offered a measured tone.

“We play a lot of spotlight games,” Wade said. “It’s going to be a good game. The fans are going to be excited for the opportunity.

“As players, we love these types of games. You want to come out and perform great and for us the most important thing to continue to play great.”