‘The difference’: Landry Shamet plays hero in Knicks’ playoff comeback win
For one delirious Madison Square Garden moment, Landry Shamet stood at the center of New York’s basketball universe.
The former Wichita State star had his arms raised above his head, soaking in the roar of the world’s most famous arena after delivering the shot that finally broke Cleveland in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday evening.
The Knicks had been dead. Buried, really. Down 22 points with less than eight minutes left in regulation. Their fans were restless. Their offense was stuck. Donovan Mitchell had looked ready to steal the opening game of the series.
Then Shamet, who had barely played, checked into the game and changed everything.
Shamet scored all nine of his points during a furious comeback, buried the tying 3-pointer in the final minute of regulation, drilled the dagger in overtime and spent the closing stretch hounding Mitchell as the Knicks rallied for a 115-104 overtime win over the Cavaliers. In just 17 minutes off the bench, Shamet finished a team-best plus-25 and earned a simple but powerful review from Knicks coach Mike Brown.
“He was the difference in the ball game tonight,” Brown said. “On both ends of the floor.”
The game-tying 3 needed every inch of the Garden’s imagination.
With the Knicks trailing 99-96 in the final minute of regulation, Cleveland sent a double team at Jalen Brunson and forced the ball out of his hands. The pass swung to O.G. Anunoby near the top of the key, drawing Shamet’s defender just far enough away from the right corner.
That was all the room Shamet needed.
The ball floated his way. Shamet caught, rose and released before the close-out could reach him. His shot hit the front of the rim, bounced high into the air, kissed the backboard, spun off the front of the rim and finally dropped through with 44.4 seconds left.
Game tied.
“What a bounce for Shamet!” ESPN broadcaster Mike Breen shouted. “It’s bedlam here in the Garden.”
Shamet said afterward he did not fully process the weight of his tying 3-pointer in the moment. That may have helped. There was no time to think about the stage, the comeback or the 19,000 people waiting to erupt.
“That’s kind of where you want to be,” Shamet told local media. “When you’re flowing, you don’t want to be thinking about things.”
Shamet’s next big shot came in overtime. This one did not need luck.
With 1:49 left, Brunson pushed the ball ahead and fired a cross-court pass to Shamet, who had been lost in the scramble. Standing alone behind the 3-point line, Shamet rose and fired again.
This one required no bounces. The shot rattled through, pushing the Knicks’ lead to 110-101 and sending the Garden into another eruption. A timeout followed, giving Shamet a few seconds to soak in the pandemonium he had created.
For a player who arrived to Wichita in 2015 as a rail-thin point guard from Kansas City, no one could have reasonably dreamed of this: Madison Square Garden roaring for him, a playoff game bending around his shooting and the former Shocker standing in the middle of everything.
The path there was every bit as unlikely as the moment itself.
Shamet had logged one quiet three-minute stint in the second quarter, then spent most of the night on the bench while Mitchell threatened to spoil the party. When Shamet checked back into the game with 9:09 left in the fourth quarter, the Knicks were still searching for a spark.
“I didn’t really play the first three quarters, so you throw fresh legs at somebody who’s got it going,” Shamet told local media about guarding Mitchell. “You try to come in and compete, be physical and take advantage of the fact that I hadn’t played and use my energy that I had.”
With 7:16 left in regulation, Shamet stayed attached to Mitchell on a drive, forced him to pick up his dribble, stayed down on a pump fake and then slid over to draw a charge when Evan Mobley cut toward the basket. Fifteen seconds later, Shamet buried his first 3-pointer of the comeback.
It was the first hint that Brown had found something.
From there, Shamet never came out. After barely factoring into the first 40 minutes, he played the final 14. Brown needed his shooting, but he also needed his edge on the other end. Shamet spent the closing stretch crowding Mitchell, sliding his feet, poking at the ball, staying in his air space and forcing Cleveland’s star into uncomfortable possessions.
Mitchell finished with a team-high 29 points, but he did not score over the final 13 minutes. With Shamet serving as his primary defender, Mitchell went 0 for 4 from the field with a turnover down the stretch as Cleveland’s offense unraveled.
“He came in and not only changed the game with the clutch shots, but defensively just bringing the energy,” Knicks reserve Miles McBride told local media. “Getting his hands on balls, deflections, picking up full court. Things like that just inspire the whole team.”
The Knicks needed every bit of it.
They trailed 93-71 with less than eight minutes left in regulation before outscoring Cleveland 44-11 over the final 12:45 of the game. According to NBA.com, teams were 1-521 this season when trailing by at least 20 points in the fourth quarter. In the playoffs, over the last 30 years of play-by-play data, teams were 3-748 in that situation.
The only larger fourth-quarter playoff comeback in that span came in 2012 when the Clippers rallied from 24 points down to beat Memphis in Game 1.
The Knicks had Brunson, who scored a game-high 38 points. They had a star-studded starting lineup. They had the Garden behind them.
But they also needed the player who had spent most of the night waiting.
“We’re never surprised,” Anunoby told local media about Shamet. “That’s what he does. He’s an amazing player.”
That has been the essence of Shamet’s NBA career: stay ready, stay useful, stay prepared for the moment that may or may not come.
Earlier this postseason, after he did not play a single minute in a game against the Hawks, cameras caught Shamet running wind sprints in the background of a postgame television interview. It was a small scene, easy to miss, but it explained how a player can sit for nearly three quarters of an crucial playoff game, then step into the middle of it as if he had been there all night.
“Stay ready,” Shamet told local media. “It’s the NBA, it’s the playoffs. Need everybody, one through 15. Never know what can happen.”
Shamet has had to live that reality this season.
A severe shoulder injury nearly pushed him out of the league, but he found a new life with the Knicks. He averaged 9.3 points, tied for the second-most in his eight-year NBA career, and shot 39.2% from 3-point range, the third-best mark of his career.
He has also become a postseason regular: Shamet has appeared in the playoffs in seven of his eight NBA seasons and has contributed for four different teams.
This was not even the first time he had delivered a massive playoff shot in a historic comeback. As a rookie with the Clippers in 2019, Shamet drilled the go-ahead 3-pointer with 16.5 seconds left to cap a 31-point comeback against the defending champion Golden State Warriors for the largest comeback in NBA playoff history.
But given the stakes, Shamet’s game-tying 3 on Tuesday stands as the biggest shot of his NBA career.
“He played big time, that’s just who he is,” Brunson said. “He’s a true professional, ever since he walked into the league. I’ve got to see his work firsthand these past couple of years. He’s up to any task that you put in front of him. He’s been that player for us and we have the utmost faith in him.”
Shamet, now 29, spent three seasons at Wichita State from 2015-18 before declaring early for the NBA Draft. As a 6-foot-4 guard, he averaged 14.9 points and 5.2 assists during his final season with the Shockers, establishing himself as one of the most efficient guards in college basketball and one of the program’s best player-development stories.
The Knicks will try to carry that momentum into Game 2, scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Madison Square Garden.
They have the series lead. They have Brunson playing like a star. They have belief after authoring one of the NBA’s most improbable playoff comebacks in decades.
And now they have another reason to trust Shamet, the former Shocker who waited nearly all night for his chance, then made the Garden shake when it finally arrived.
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