Mikal Bridges couldn’t discover the underside of the web with a GPS and a magnifying glass — till somebody lit a fireplace beneath him.
Bridges shot 1-of-10 via the primary three quarters of Sport 4 in opposition to the Detroit Pistons on Sunday together with 0-of-6 within the second quarter alone.
“I was playing pretty s–tty in the first half, and the first three quarters,” he admitted at his locker after the sport. “So I was just trying to get it right.”
Bridges went on to make a pair of threes within the fourth quarter to assist flip an 11-point deficit right into a three-point recreation with 6:34 to go.
“A lot of things weren’t going our way, shots weren’t falling,” he mentioned. “Just found a way to win, that’s the most important thing.”
The star Knicks ahead acquired in a 5 draft-pick take care of the Nets final summer time credited his teammates for serving to him snap free from his stoop.
“[They are] just keeping me locked in. I know I’m fine and I know it’s gonna come, but they just kept telling me, ‘keep shooting it,’” Bridges mentioned after the sport. “They keep giving me confidence to go out there. Just try to be aggressive, try to make the right play, make the shot since I was playing pretty s–tty in the first half, and the first three quarters, so I was just trying to get it right.”
The loudest voice chirping, cursing, and pushing him again into rhythm?
“I think the biggest is Cam Payne,” Bridges mentioned. “He’s big on voicing, helping me out.”
Payne, who’s recognized and been good associates with Bridges since their Phoenix Suns days, isn’t afraid to jab a teammate when mandatory.
“Sometimes, him calling me some not good names helps, as well,” Bridges mentioned with a smile. “It just feeds off that. But it’s everybody, man. I swear it’s everybody. Even Josh [Hart], JB [Jalen Brunson], when we’re on the court, they just tell me to stick with it. It’s not fun missing, and you wait for that next opportunity to shoot again and I appreciate those guys, always.”
Payne wasn’t shy about his halftime method, although he solely provided the watered-down model of his message to Bridges.
“The PG version? ‘Make some damn shots,’” he mentioned, laughing. “I can’t say [what I told him] on tape, but just know I was giving him a hard time. That’s how we fight through things. The accountability factor. I can go up to him and tell him anything and he respects it — and he does the same thing to me.”
Payne mentioned he usually tries to spark Bridges earlier in video games — partly to carry his teammate, partly to juice himself up earlier than he enters with the second unit.
“Most of the time, it be like — first quarter, I be tryna find a way to get him going to get me going,” he mentioned. “He’ll get me going with energy, so when we [the second unit] come out there, we got energy, too. We kind of fight each other for energy.”
Regardless of his early struggles, Bridges in the end delivered when it mattered most. He completed with eight factors on 3-of-12 capturing (2-of-6 from deep), added three steals, and performed one among his most impactful defensive video games of the season.
“I just told him to keep being aggressive,” Payne mentioned. “I feel like stats always come around, and he made some of the biggest shots for us and kind of got us back in the game. He wasn’t shooting well before that, but just knowing that people trust him — the confidence we give him on the bench, that boost — it translates to the game. He hit some big shots and kept us alive. The little things matter.”
DEFENSE STILL WINS
The most important little factor got here with beneath a minute left, when Bridges stripped Cade Cunningham — preserving a one-point Knicks lead.
“He’s able to be disruptive. He’s able to make plays. It’s just who he is,” Brunson mentioned after the sport. “He’s had that ability since I can remember, back in our Villanova days, trying not to let our offense dictate how we’re playing. So he brought that over today, and he was very effective. We have the utmost confidence in him, regardless of what’s going on throughout the game.”
Bridges has drawn the hardest defensive assignments all season in 12 months 1 with the Knicks. The outcomes have been blended — anticipated while you guard All-Star scorers nightly — however what’s by no means wavered is his effort and relentlessness.
“I think for the entire season, it’s been a steady climb for him. He’s always had that ability. He’s always been a very good defensive player,” mentioned head coach Tom Thibodeau. “He’s got great length and anticipation. He knows how to challenge shots. He can get to the second and third efforts. When you have long limbs like that, it makes the defense a lot better. I think that’s what’s causing a lot of turnovers — if the ball pressure is strong, we can get out in passing lanes, get some turnovers, get into the open floor, and fuel our offense.”
