Knicks frustrated by physical Magic, lose Landry Shamet to injury
Knicks guard Landry Shamet, left, injures his shoulder after colliding with Magic players during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday in Orlando, Fla. Credit: AP/Kevin Kolczynski
ORLANDO, Fla. — The game did not get away from them until the fourth quarter, but it took just minutes to see what kind of night it would be for the Knicks.
Landry Shamet, trying to tightly guard Jalen Suggs as he brought the ball up the floor, was met by a hard screen near midcourt from Wendell Carter Jr., the Magic’s 6-10, 270-pound center, who delivered a crushing blow to Shamet’s right shoulder.
Shamet crumpled to the floor and got up, immediately grasping his arm and heading straight for the locker room. Just 2:43 into the game, he was done for the night — and he likely faces a long absence with what appeared to be a serious injury to the same shoulder he dislocated in the preseason last year.
It marked a continuation of the physical bullying the Magic handed the Knicks earlier this season, this time dominating in the paint and pressuring them end to end. The Knicks appeared frustrated, bothered by the physical play, the grabbing and shoving and flopping, and seemed annoyed by their own struggles.
In the end, they had no one to blame but themselves as they fell to the Magic, 133-121, dropping to 1-5 on the road this season.
The Knicks were shorthanded, playing without injured OG Anunoby, missing Deuce McBride with an illness and quickly losing Shamet.
The Magic (10-7), who have been playing without Paolo Banchero, put up a season-high offensive output. Franz Wagner fell one point short of his career high, scoring 37 points. Desmond Bane had 27 points and Suggs added 26.
Jalen Brunson scored 33 points and Karl-Anthony Towns added 24 for the Knicks (9-6), who struggled to find production on either end of the court as the Magic goaded them into trying to match their style.
“Be ourselves,” Brunson said. “If that’s what they want to do, we’ve got to be ourselves. They’re good at it. So no matter what the situation is out there, we’ve got to keep running and do what we do.
“Obviously, get stops and run, play a good brand of basketball. We can’t get into physical matches and trying to not be who we are. Just stick to what we do.”
“I don’t think we matched the physicality at all,” Josh Hart said. “Teams like that obviously are tough defensively, those kind of things, and you have to use that aggression against them. Pick up the pace, play fast, not let them get set. Don’t put them on the free-throw line and allow them to get easy points and then get the defense set.
“We have to play with more pace when we go against a physical team like that and get everyone running, flowing in rhythm.”
After a back-and-forth battle for three quarters, the Magic pulled away early in the fourth. Wagner sank a three-pointer with 7:40 remaining, Suggs drained a corner three-pointer and Wagner hit a driving hook to give Orlando a 120-104 lead.
Hart then battled for a loose ball and got tangled up with Suggs, shoving him with a hand on his neck as he pushed him to the ground. As the officials rushed between them, Suggs raced to the corner of the court and animatedly pumped up the fans. After a lengthy review, Hart was called for a common foul, his fifth, and a technical foul.
Open dunks by Suggs and Tristan da Silva gave the Magic a 124-106 lead. Hart fouled out with 2:34 left, Suggs hit the first of two free throws to put the Magic ahead 128-115 and Mike Brown emptied the bench.
“We just didn’t really play our style of basketball,” Hart said. “We were slow, not crisp offensively and defensively. So we go to the drawing board . . . We’ve got to make the corrections.”
After Shamet got hurt, the Knicks ruled him out for the game, but the injury puts his immediate and long-term future in question.
Just eight days after he scored a career-high 36 points against Miami and three days after he hit a pair of huge three-point field goals in the final minutes to help the Knicks win in Dallas, Shamet could be facing decisions on whether to have surgery this time rather than rehab the shoulder. And the Knicks could have a choice, too, with Shamet on a non-guaranteed deal.
“Yeah, a guy who worked so hard to get back and has been playing great,” Brunson said. “It’s just tough. But knowing him, he’s going to be back better than ever.”
“Wouldn’t want that for anybody, to go down and get hurt in the game, especially Landry, I’m close with,” Mikal Bridges said. “Dealing with probably the same shoulder thing. Just praying for the best and hoping everything is OK. Definitely going to need him out there.
“I saw him at half. He said he was OK. As long as he’s OK, his mental is OK. He knows more than me, but he’s in good spirits.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
