The Landry Shamet Game

One of the reasons we love sports is that they are so beautifully unpredictable...

Final Score: Knicks 140 - Heat 132
Record: 8-4

Just one month ago, Landry Shamet wasn’t sure if he’d even make the Knicks’ opening night roster.

In the Knicks’ fourth and penultimate preseason game, played on October 13, Shamet was sidelined by an illness, missing out on an important opportunity to make his case for New York’s final roster slot. In that contest, Malcolm Brogdon started at point guard and seemed to be a lock to make the team. Sharpshooter Garrison Mathews logged 19 minutes off the bench.

Since New York had only enough cap space to sign one veteran, it appeared Shamet’s days in New York were numbered. However, the following afternoon, Brogdon shockingly announced he was retiring from the NBA.

In New York’s preseason finale that Friday, Shamet played 20 minutes off the pine, which was 20 more minutes than Mathews. Landry finished the contest with 11 points and three three-pointers. The two marksmen had been locked in a super-competitive battle for a single roster spot, with Shamet eventually earning his way back onto the squad. Later that evening, the Knicks informed Mathews he would be waived ahead of Saturday’s 5 pm deadline, and let Landry know he’d made the cut.

One of the primary reasons we love sports is that they are so beautifully unpredictable. Imagine telling Shamet a few weeks ago, when his future was far from certain and he didn’t know if he’d have a job in a few days, that 18,000 fans inside Madison Square Garden would be chanting his name in unison in mid-November.

“LAN-DRY SHA-MET….. LAN-DRY SHA-MET”

Before we arrive at that moment, let’s rewind 24 hours, when Knicks fans were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief after it was reported that Jalen Brunson had sustained a Grade 1 ankle sprain. Brunson was ruled out of Friday’s contest, but this certainly qualified as good news. Grade 1 is the least significant among graded strains, and the fact that JB has a chance to return as soon as next week is an undeniably welcomed update.

As if playing without the Captain wasn’t challenging enough, OG Anunoby retreated to the locker room just two minutes into the first quarter on Friday. Shortly thereafter, the team announced that OG would be sidelined for the rest of the contest due to a left hamstring strain.

With two of the Knicks’ stars sidelined, everyone in the arena knew Karl-Anthony Towns would have to put his team on his back. And in one of the best first halves of his career, KAT did just that, pouring in 31 points on 16 shots in just 20 minutes of action.

However, Towns cooled off significantly after halftime. To his credit, instead of forcing up shots, he focused on rebounding the basketball and setting up his teammates. It’s not always easy for a superstar on a heater to unselfishly acknowledge he no longer has a hot hand, and that jacking up jumpers would not be in the team’s best interest.

In addition to Shamet, the other Knick reserve who stepped in and stepped up on Friday was Jordan Clarkson. This was why Leon Rose and company brought in this veteran. This is why you deal with the frustrating, foolish, forced contested three-pointers on a fast break. Because on a random night in November, when your team is shorthanded, you’ll find yourself in need of a gunslinger with no conscience. And you’ll ask him to get buckets, hoping he delivers.

Clarkson ended the evening with 24 much-needed points to go along with five rebounds, three assists and three three-pointers. Although he was locked in from long range (3-of-6 from downtown), JC didn’t settle for jumpers. Instead, he used his handle to drive into the teeth of the defense and draw fouls. Clarkson earned 11 free throws, knocking down nine of them.

While the points are pretty (New York has now scored 130+ in four of their past five contests, a franchise first), they wouldn’t have won Friday night without the dirty work and dishing supplied by Josh Hart. The Knicks’ swiss-army knife registered yet another triple-double, stuffing the stat sheet with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

Yet, as alluded to above, this one will be remembered as “The Landry Shamet Game.”

The vet exploded for a career-high 36 points with two rebounds, three assists and six three-pointers. He was 12-of-19 from the field and 6-of-6 from the charity stripe. Like Clarkson, he didn’t rely solely on his three-point acumen. When defenders closed out too quickly, Shamet put the ball on the floor and attacked the tin. His dunk over Kel’el Ware was incredible.

Coming into Friday, Shamet had made a total of six shots inside the arc over the first 11 games of the season. He made six shots in the restricted area vs. Miami.

Late in the second half, when he caught fire, helping secure a critical bounce-back victory for the home team, Shamet was hailed as a hero, his name raining down on him from the rafters.

After the game, asked about the crowd’s reaction, Shamet responded, “These fans know I love them. I’ll say that till I’m blue in the face, love it. Love the energy every night. It’s as good as it gets.”

Shamet also talked about the Knicks’ next-man-up mentality. “What makes this group special, we got a lot of guys that just care about winning,” said Shamet. “Whatever it takes, we got Jalen out, we lose OG early there, and we got great contributions across the board from everyone. It’s the mentality we have to have, and we’ll continue to have. It’s next man up. A lot of teams talk about that, but I think this group really embodies it, and will continue to.”

Other Takeaways and Knicks Notes:

🏀 In foul trouble all night, Mitchell Robinson was limited to just 14 minutes but somehow still managed to grab eight offensive rebounds.

Mitch Rob has always been an elite offensive rebounder, but what he’s doing this season boggles the mind.

The NBA’s all-time record for most offensive rebounds per-36 minutes over the course of a full season is 6.6 by Moses Malone during his MVP campaign in 1978-79.

Dennis Rodman’s career high was 5.7

As of this morning, Mitch Rob is averaging 13.0 offensive rebounds per-36 minutes.

13.

Thirteen.

Ridiculous.

🏀 Mikal Bridges struggled with his jumper, shooting 6-of-21 from the floor and 3-of-12 from three-point territory, but still found plenty of ways to positively impact the contest. He racked up 15 points, five rebounds, five assists, two blocks and seven (7!!) steals.

Bridges logged a season-high 42 minutes with OG unavailable. (The team did not provide an update on Anunoby’s status after the game.)

🏀 Miles McBride started at point guard in place of Brunson and tallied nine points, four assists, and three rebounds. He was 4-of-10 from the floor and just 1-of-6 from three-point range.

Surprisingly, Tyler Kolek was a DNP-CD. Deuce excels in many areas, but he is not a true point guard. He’s more of an undersized 3-and-D wing. If Brunson misses additional time, I’d like to see Brown give Kolek a chance to run the offense for short stretches.

🏀 Guerschon Yabusele also saw far less floor time than expected, logging a total of just six minutes. The Dancing Bear made his only FG attempt, a three-pointer. He’ll likely play a more prominent role Monday, assuming OG is ruled out.

🏀 Mike Brown gave plenty of praise to his assistants following Friday’s win:

“My fricken’ staff was unbelievable. Chris Jent was fabulous. Rick Brunson was fabulous. Brendan O’Conner, they were all really good and they were on point helping me with substitutions, mixing in zone, figuring out where we need to go with the ball offensively.”

Brown also discussed his in-game decision to play zone defense:

“We were having trouble guarding them off the dribble, and so we just wanted to try and junk up the game, give them a different look, see if we could get them out of rhythm a little bit. You think that it worked, but I don’t know; it’s a good team, and Spo is a great coach. They missed a few out of it. We gotta do a better job rebounding it. But the reality is, we worked on the zone one day, and it wasn’t the zone that we used tonight. We kinda just threw that together, and our guys did, not a great job, a helluva job of responding and reacting to the zone that we called on the fly.”

🏀 Friday was the second time since the start of last season that KAT scored 30+ points in a single half, tying Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, and Julius Randle for third all-time in franchise history.

🏀 Jordan Clarkson has accumulated north of 8,100 points off the bench in his career. This week, he passed Vinnie Johnson for 10th on the NBA’s all-time list.

🏀 New York has scored a total of 1,465 points thus far in 2025-26. That’s the most over the first 12 games of any season in franchise history.

🏀 KAT is just the second player in NBA history to average 12+ rebounds, 2+ three-pointers and 2+ steals over the first twelve games of a season. (DeMarcus Cousins and Nikola Jokić are the other two.)

🏀 Josh Hart is up to 16 triple-doubles as a Knick, tying Richie Guerin for the third-most in franchise history. Hart trails only Walt Frazier (23) and the late great Michael Ray Richardson (18).

🏀 Elsewhere Around the NBA:
The Atlanta Hawks knocked down a season-high 24 three-pointers en route to winning their fourth straight game Thursday night, thanks primarily to a monster effort from rising star Jalen Johnson (31 points, 18 rebounds, 14 assists and seven steals).

Ever since Trae Young went down with an ankle injury during the first week of the season, the Hawks have been rolling.

Here’s some food for thought:

In the games Trae Young has played this season, the Atlanta Hawks are:
1-3

In the games Trae Young has missed this season, the Atlanta Hawks are:
7-2

The Hawks’ Net Rating with Trae Young ON the court this season is:
-9.2

The Hawks’ Net Rating with Trae Young OFF the court this season is:
+6.8

The Hawks’ Defensive Rating with Trae Young ON the court this season is:
123.2

The Hawks’ Defensive Rating with Trae Young OFF the court this season is:
106.8

🏀 Next Up:
Knicks play the Heat Monday in Miami (7:30 tip)

The two teams will square off in a much-anticipated rematch, this time down in South Beach. As a reminder, New York has yet to win a road game this season.

In addition to the Knicks’ question marks on the injury report, it’s worth noting that Bam Adebayo (toe) and Tyler Herro (ankle) travelled to New York for Friday’s game. Both players were ultimately ruled out, but it appears there is a chance Bam could return to action and Herro could make his season debut two days from now.