Why Knicks’ Landry Shamet closed over Mikal Bridges late in Pistons loss

The New York Knicks made a decision down the stretch of Thursday night’s game against the Detroit Pistons to have Landry Shamet on the court instead of Mikal Bridges. It was an intriguing move that later got an explanation from New York head coach Mike Brown.

“Landry hit a couple shots down the stretch,” Brown said following the Knicks’ 126-111 loss to Cade Cunningham and company at Madison Square Garden in New York (via Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News). “We were looking to score points and Landry was the only one to hit shots from downtown tonight.”

Shamet played in more minutes in the second half than Bridges, getting 15:36 of playtime after the half to only 11:23 for the latter. In return, Shamet provided New York with 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting from the floor and 3-for-6 from behind the arc in the second half, while Bridges only had two points on 1-for-3 shooting in that span.

In any case, New York did not have enough firepower to keep up with Cunningham and the Pistons, who shot 52 percent from the field and went 13-for-30 from deep.

The Knicks, on the other hand, shot only 47 percent and missed a ton of shots from the 3-point region, going just 8-for-35 on their deep balls. Only Shamet and Jalen Brunson found considerable success from downtown, shooting 6-for-15 from deep together, while OG Anunoby, Jose Alvarado, Karl-Anthony Towns and Bridges combined for an atrocious 2-for-20.

The Knicks can be better on Saturday, as they hope for some positive regression on their outside shooting against the Houston Rockets at MSG.

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