Landry Shamet has been ridiculously good at defending Donovan Mitchell through the first 3 games of the ECF
I have become an unreasonable Landry Shamet stan this season. Sometimes I catch myself watching only him for entire defensive possessions, which is probably not healthy, but it did send me down the matchup-data hole.
And the numbers are kind of ridiculous.
Through the first 3 games of the ECF, Donovan Mitchell has scored only 10 total points when matched up with Shamet. Only 6 of those points have come from made field goals. 0 made 2-pointers.
| Stat | Mitchell vs. Shamet |
|---|---|
| Matchup possessions | 53.1 |
| Matchup time | 10:33 |
| Points | 10 |
| Points from made FG | 6 |
| FG | 2⁄7 |
| 2PT | 0/4 |
| 3PT | 2⁄3 |
| FT | 4⁄5 |
| AST / TOV | 2 / 0 |
| FGA per 100 matchup poss | 13.2 |
| Points per 100 matchup poss | 18.8 |
The shot suppression is the wildest part. Don has only taken 7 field goals across 53.1 matchup possessions against Shamet. That means he has gone without a field-goal attempt on roughly 46 of those 53.1 matchup possessions.
Among Knicks defenders with 20+ matchup possessions on Mitchell:
| Primary defender | Matchup poss | Mitchell pts | FG | 2PT | 3PT | FGA/100 poss | Pts/100 poss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Hart | 67.9 | 18 | 7⁄19 | 6⁄9 | 1⁄10 | 28.0 | 26.5 |
| Landry Shamet | 53.1 | 10 | 2⁄7 | 0/4 | 2⁄3 | 13.2 | 18.8 |
| Mikal Bridges | 35.8 | 7 | 3⁄8 | 2⁄5 | 1⁄3 | 22.3 | 19.6 |
| Miles McBride | 22.6 | 8 | 4⁄6 | 4⁄6 | 0/0 | 26.5 | 35.4 |
So Shamet has the lowest Mitchell shot rate, lowest Mitchell points rate, and lowest Mitchell FG% among that group.
The funny part is that this is not some chaos-defense thing where Shamet is flying around forcing turnovers. Mitchell has 0 turnovers in the matchup. Shamet is just staying attached, Mitchell is giving it up, and the possessions keep ending without Mitchell getting to a shot.
Anyway, I am once again asking Mike Brown to keep feeding the Shamet minutes in Game 4.