Landry Shamet steps up big in Knicks’ victory without OG Anunoby
PHILADELPHIA — Landry Shamet averaged nine minutes a game in the Knicks’ first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks and played 20 total minutes in Games 1 and 2 in Round 2 against the 76ers. But with OG Anunoby out nursing a hamstring strain , head coach Mike Brown tabbed his veteran three-and-D wing. And Shamet repaid that trust with 15 points on five-of-six shooting from the field plus hard-nosed defense in 26 minutes of play in the Knicks’ Game 3 victory .
“Yeah, it felt good, felt good to get in there with my teammates, felt good to get a win,” he said at his locker after the win on Friday. “We got one more, one more in a matter of hours, really. So trying to get our bodies right, get our minds right and try to go get one.
” Shamet has had a winding second season in New York, a run that’s included a second significant shoulder injury in as many years after dislocating it in preseason play last year. As a result, he fell out of Brown’s rotation midseason and, despite heavy minutes coming into and out of the mid-February All-Star break, didn’t see much time in the first round against the Hawks. That changed on Friday, when the Knicks ruled Anunoby out for Game 3 90 minutes ahead of tipoff and announced Miles McBride as the starter shortly before pregame introductions.
Brown subbed Shamet in for Mikal Bridges at the 3:03 mark of the first quarter and played him 26 of the game’s remaining 39 minutes. “As a coach, you love to see it, and that’s why you give different guys opportunities at different times,” said Brown. “Sometimes, you start Landry.
Sometimes, you start [rookie] Mo [Diawara]. Sometimes, you start this guy, and what it hopefully shows at the end of the day coming from me is that I have confidence in them, and not only that — your number can be called any time, so be ready. And our guys have taken that to heart.