Knicks’ Ice-cold Bench Can’t Derail The Title Train As 53-year Drought Ends

SAN ANTONIO — It wasn’t so long ago, Landry Shamet couldn’t miss a shot.

He became a key part of the Knicks’ explosive second unit. But Shamet has gone ice-cold, and the Knicks’ reserves are no longer making an impact.

It continued in Saturday night’s 94-90 Game 5, championship-clinching win. Shamet, hesitant and clearly lacking confidence, missed five of his seven field goal attempts.

The Knicks’ bench was scoreless until the final minute of the third quarter when Jordan Clarkson got a shot to fall. Before that, the backups missed their first 14 shots from the field.

Spurs super-sub Dylan Harper more than doubled up the Knicks reserves with 25 points.

Shamet played his way into the playoff rotation, carving out a prominent role in the Eastern Conference semifinals when OG Anunoby suffered a mild hamstring strain. In the first two games of the finals, he scored 13 points apiece and was 6-of-13 from 3-point range. But his shot has gone awry since. He was a combined 1-of-11 from the field in the previous two contests, and it didn’t get any better in Game 5.

“Great process, got some great looks, had a few that were down and out,” Shamet said after Game 3. “Process over outcome. I’m more upset about some of the things defensively that I’ve been priding myself on. I had a few possessions where I didn’t do my job like I needed to. That’s fixable. Sometimes the gods give you in and outs and the ball doesn’t go in.”

Shamet wasn’t alone in his shooting woes. McBride went 4-of-20 in the first four games, and wasn’t close on either of his attempts on Saturday night. Clarkson has mostly been a non-factor, in and out of the rotation. After his Game 4 brilliance, Jose Alvarado took a step back, missing all five of his field goal attempts.

In the end, it didn’t matter. The Knicks ended their 53-year championship drought anyway.