by With 8:25 left in the fourth quarter and New York trailing 4, Mikal Bridges went to the bench and didn’t touch the court again until there were 13 seconds left in the game, and it was only as a defensive replacement in what turned out to be a 99-98 Knicks victory over the Hornets.
Tom Thibodeau leaned on Miles McBride during those minutes, saying he was with the player “shooting,” reports Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. After the game, Bridges owned his game and said Thibodeau made the right choice (quote via Bondy at the Post).
“I need to play better. I’ve been inconsistent,” Bridges said. “I’ve had some games where I’ve played well, some games I haven’t. I just have to find a rhythm within the team. That’s about it. Not even 20 games, I’m just trying to figure it out. … I had a lot of sloppy turnovers a few times (where the opponent) scored on me going into the middle, I’ll be better.
The obvious decline this season is in Bridges’ shooting, he’s shooting 30.6% from 3-point range, down from 37.2% a season ago, and a player who averaged 3.9 free throw attempts per game last season comes to the line less than once. one game this season. With all of this, his counting stats are down across the board (15.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game). Those shooting issues seem to have carried over to other parts of his game – a positive defender for his career, he’s been a bit worse this season on that end of the court (the Knicks as a team have struggled to get stops).
A question worth asking: Are the extra minutes he’s playing this season wearing Bridges out? Brides leads the league with 38.1 minutes per game and he is third in the NBA in total minutes played with 724. Last season, Bridges played a lot of minutes in Brooklyn, 34.8 per game, but those few minutes Do the extras take away some of his legs?
Inevitably, the price the Knicks paid – five first-round picks – to land Bridges enters the conversation. It’s not fair to Bridges, and after the game, another Villanova player, Josh Hart, came to Bridges’ defense (quote via Bondy at the Post).
“He’s in a new situation. He’s in a situation where he’s played 19 games in a different role than he’s played the last four years. So it’s our job to get him going. And everyone else bullshit about what we gave up, it means nothing If we win, if we get a championship, no one cares how many picks we gave up We could have given up 15 picks, it doesn’t matter. .we are trying to win a championship. It’s going to be a key part of it.
