"I Didn't Hear No Bell..."

The Knicks - as only they can - just made this a series.

Good Morning and Happy Memorial Day!

Do you believe what we just saw? Me neither.

Game 3: Knicks 106, Pacers 100

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you.

That’s a big ole’ snapshot of Landry Shamet leading off today’s newsletter.

Why start with Landry Shamet?

Because why the hell not, that’s why.

Landry Shamet…who any one of 29 other teams could have signed when he was rehabbing an injury earlier this year.

Landry Shamet…who played 31 minutes this postseason before last night, contributing a grand total of three points in that time.

Landry Shamet…who was no one’s answer to the growing list of questions about how the favored Knicks found themselves in an 0-2 hole headed to Indiana for Game 3.

And yes, Landry Shamet…who finished a team high plus-12 in 11 minutes, and was on the floor during a key stretch last night when New York saved their season - and maybe several jobs in the process.

I open with Landry Shamet not because he was the player of the game. For as fine a night as he had, he isn’t even in genuine consideration for one of my three stars. This game had no shortage of heroes, despite how dispiriting things got.

No, Landry Shamet is the only appropriate place to start today’s recap because Landry Shamet is living proof that we’re all wasting our f——g time.

Day after day, week after week, month after month, and even year after year, we pour ourselves into the analysis and consideration of every nook and cranny of this basketball team. I write about, you read it. Collectively, we obsess over every detail. We do this in the hope of finding hope itself…of discovering some proof that, why yes, this team does have the goods to make it all the way.

Entering this series, all that collective obsession led us down many roads. We pondered matchups, schematic adjustments, individual questions, and everything in between. None of those roads led to Landry Shamet.

And because Shamet was seen as such a dead end, when Tom Thibideau put him on the court alongside Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Towns and Delon Wright (!) in a lineup that had never previously seen the light of day, Knicks Twitter collectively lost its mind. So much time, effort and energy went into forecasting the key battlegrounds of Knicks vs Pacers, and now here we were, with our life on the line, pinning our hopes on a backcourt that played a total of 110 regular season minutes up to this point?

It was inexplicable, and thus, fitting. Only that with defies logic and reason makes any sense when it comes to this basketball team.

Down 20 midway through the second, even if Shamet’s minutes weren’t directly responsible for the vast majority of that deficit, he would go down as the symbol of a season gone horribly awry (except it was actually par for the course in this maddening campaign). The luck that helped them make the conference finals behind five one-possession victories had finally run out. New starting lineup, new rotation, same old problems, and same old results, at least where this series was concerned.

The only thing more inexplicable than these first half lineups would be if they actually started working.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, but the most unpredictable team in the NBA stayed true to form. This time, it was in the best way possible.

Starting with a mini third quarter barrage from Deuce McBride, continuing with one of the most epic scoring sprees in Knicks playoff history from Karl-Anthony Towns, and supported throughout by a defense that finally rose to the challenge and held the Pacers to 42 second half points, the Knicks decided they weren’t ready for summer vacation just yet. Now, they’ll have a chance to even the series in Indianapolis tomorrow night. If we’ve learned nothing about this group, it’s that they should never be counted out.

Nothing about any of this makes any sense, mind you. How they were only down 10 points after three quarters despite being thoroughly dominated by the Pacers is still a mystery. Jalen Brunson had what might be his worst playoff game as a Knick. He wasn’t just missing shots; JB wasn’t himself. Mikal Bridges wasn’t much better, and ended the game equalling Brunson’s 6-for-18 shooting line. KAT was 2-of-8 before the fourth. No Knick was having what anyone would call a great game, although OG Anunoby was doing his best to keep them within striking distance. Indy showed no signs of letting up.

Why tonight? Why now? Why Landry Shamet? The universe is a mysterious place.

Whatever the reasons that brought us there, the lineup of Shamet, Wright, Deuce, Hart and KAT began the fourth on a 9-4 run before OG checked in for Shamet. Towns kept the train moving until Brunson and Bridges checked back in, although Jalen’s stint didn’t last long after he picked up his fifth foul. With McBride back in, the Towns takeover continued as the defense reached new heights. After nothing went right for most of three quarters, everything was going right down the stretch.

With a wild, falling-on-his-backside KAT triple that made the score 94-90, the Knicks had scored 31 of the last 43 points in a stretch lasting just under nine minutes. In the blink of an eye, the game, series, and maybe the season had flipped. Brunson re-entered to help seal the deal, and there would be no more missed free throws to speak of late.

By hook, by crook, and anything but by the book, the New York Knicks authored yet another chapter in their postseason story.

Is it a tragedy? A comedy? A drama? Maybe it’s a horror flick, with them playing the role of Michael Myers.

Whatever it is, it’s not a movie any of us have seen before, nor is it a script anyone could pen.

No sane person, at least.

This is the stuff that keeps us coming back for more.

Landry freaking Shamet.

Sure.

Why the hell not.

Stars of the Game (and belated Stars for Games 1 & 2, my bad) are coming your way tomorrow.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”