Landry Shamet etches himself in Knicks playoff lore with one shot

It seemed as if it took forever.

In the more than two seconds between the moment when Landry Shamet launched his tying three-pointer to the moment when it actually dropped through the net with 44 seconds left in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the crowd at Madison Square Garden seemed to go through a lifetime of emotions, the kind of roller-coaster feeling that perfectly encapsulized the highs and lows of being a lifelong Knicks fan.

There have been bigger shots in Knicks history, but few have been as dramatic as the one that tied a game in which the Knicks had trailed by 22 points just seven minutes earlier. For that alone — and the fact that it may forever hold a place in Knicks lore — it is worth reviewing as the Knicks headed into Thursday night’s Game 2 looking to build on their crazy 115-104 overtime win over the Cavaliers.

Let’s start from the moment when Shamet found himself wide open in the right corner after defenders left him to race after the hot-shooting Mikal Bridges, who had streaked down the court.

You could almost feel the collective Garden gasp as OG Anunoby at the top of the arc got the ball to Shamet, who jumped to shoot before James Harden could get to him. The gasps were on the verge of turning to groans as the ball clanked high off the far rim and looked as if it would ricochet away. Instead, it touched the front rim and seemed to hang there for an eternity before dropping into the net as the crowd went berserk.

It wasn’t just the fans who went through myriad emotions.

“Same as everybody, the crowd reaction when it hits the rim was like ‘Aww’ and then it’s kind of like ‘Yay!’ ” said Josh Hart, who was watching from the bench. “You are kind of deflated for like .5 seconds and then you are hyped the next moment.”

Shamet, like almost everyone else in the arena, wasn’t so sure the ball was going to go down.

“ ‘Just stay down.’ That’s what I said. ‘Stay down,’ and it stayed down,” Shamet said.

Perhaps the one person in the arena who never doubted that the ball was going to drop through the net was Knicks coach Mike Brown, who has been a giant supporter of Shamet all season.

“It was crazy. I kind of felt it was going in,” Brown said after practice on Wednesday. “I don’t know why. It was just one of those things. I was like, ‘I think that’s going to go in,’ as crazy as it sounds.”

What might be equally crazy is the fact that Shamet came up so big, given that he had played only three minutes before replacing the struggling Hart for the final 14 minutes of the game, including overtime.

The shot was one of two three-pointers he drilled during the Knicks’ fourth-quarter comeback. Equally important was his play on defense, as he helped hold Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell to 1-for-6 shooting in the fourth quarter and overtime.

“Landry Shamet was great. Landry Shamet was great on both ends of the floor,” Brown said in his postgame news conference. “He came up big. You’re not gonna stop a guy like Donovan Mitchell. You just gotta make him work, and Landry tried like heck to make him work. He was fantastic. He was the difference in the ballgame tonight on both ends of the floor.”

When Brown was interviewing for the Knicks’ job last summer, he watched a lot of tape of the team and was particularly impressed with what Shamet could do off the bench. He convinced the shooting guard to re-sign a one-year contract with the Knicks for their final roster spot.

Brown gave Shamet a spot in the regular rotation. Then, after he missed 25 games while recovering from a shoulder dislocation suffered on Nov. 22, Brown inserted him back into the rotation for the rest of the season.

After Shamet struggled to hit shots in the Knicks’ first-round series against Atlanta, which they won in six games, he was used sparingly in the Knicks’ first two games against Philadelphia. He scored only 14 points in his first eight playoff games.

After Anunoby was injured at the end of Game 2 against Philadelphia, Brown again turned to Shamet in Game 3 and he played a pivotal role, scoring 15 points off the bench. Since averaging 1.8 points and shooting 27.8% in his first eight playoff games, Shamet has averaged 12.0 points in 18 minutes per game in his last three games, shooting 70.6% overall and 75.0% from beyond the arc.

“Just watching Landry, he plays so hard. It’s tough,” Brown said. “He’s going to leave it out on the floor. He’s great getting into the ball. If you leave him open, he was fantastic the last two games against Philly. He was great shooting the three, he was great taking the ball off the dribble, he was great defensively, great getting out in transition.

“When you see those things, you know he has that ability, and so for me, the confidence is always there. I just need to try to keep trying to find minutes for him.”

Perhaps it should be no surprise that Shamet can keep his confidence despite having injury setbacks and stretches in which he is not playing well. He has played in some pretty big games in the course of his career.

Shamet, who has played for six teams in his eight years in the NBA, played in his 76th playoff game Thursday night. In the postseason, he had hit 75 three-pointers for the Clippers, Nets, Suns and Knicks.

It’s the type of big-game performance that inspires confidence in his coaches and teammates.

“He’s a true professional ever since he’s walked into the league,” Jalen Brunson said. “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. We have the utmost faith in him.”

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.