Locked into the Eastern Conference’s No. 3 seed for the playoffs, the New York Knicks sent out their backups in the final game of the 2024-25 regular season against the Brooklyn Nets, and they won.
Veteran guard Landy Shamet had his best game of the year, posting a season-high 29 points on 9-of-17 shooting, including a 7-of-13 showing from three-point range to lead the Knicks to a 113-105 win over their crosstown rivals on Sunday afternoon at Barclays Center. Point guard Cameron Payne added 21 points, while center Precious Achiuwa posted 18 points and hauled down nine rebounds.
“You just deal with your circumstances and your reality,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “The starters are out, and it was a good opportunity to give the bench guys extended minutes.”
Shamet came off the bench just six seconds into the game for guard Mikal Bridges, whose quick cameo extended his consecutive game streak at 556. He was the only Knicks starter to dress on Sunday.
“It was really a medical recommendation that [team doctors] had,” Thibodeau said. “We thought that was the best thing for our team, and we were always going to put that first.”
New York used a 15-0 run sustained by Shamet, Payne, and Achiuwa within the final five minutes of the third quarter to overturn a Nets lead that was as large as 10 in the second half.
Tyrese Watson and Trendon Watford led the Nets with 20 points apiece. Brooklyn finished the season with a 26-56 record, fourth-worst in the Eastern Conference and sixth-worst in the entire league.
The Knicks’ 51 wins are the most in a season since the 2012-13 campaign, when they won 54 games but lost in the second round to the Indiana Pacers. They will look to break past that plateau this postseason, considering they have crashed out of the conference semifinals in each of the last two years.
With star point guard Jalen Brunson healthy and a star-studded starting five intact, hopes are high even though they have had difficulties hanging with the elite teams in the league. The Knicks went a combined 0-8 against the top two seeds in the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics.
As the No. 3 seed, they will face the Detroit Pistons in the first round — a team that has not seen the playoffs since the 2018-19 season.
