Knicks’ Mikal Bridges bounces back from shooting slump with career-best showing against Pelicans

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Mikal Bridges bounced back from a rough road trip by scoring 31 points in a home win over New Orleans on Sunday night.

“The way he was playing, he was confident and it was flowing,” Jalen Brunson said of Bridges. “I love to see it.”

In the four games prior to Sunday, Bridges was shooting just 33 percent from the floor (60 FGAs). He’d missed 21-of-29 threes. On Friday, Bridges was on the bench in the closing minutes New York’s one-point win in Charlotte.

When they sent five first-round picks to Brooklyn to acquire Bridges six months ago, the Knicks certainly didn’t envision the 28-year-old on the bench in the closing minutes of a tight game.

But that’s where Bridges found himself on Friday.

In some ways, it was the culmination of five weeks of uneven play from Bridges.

He wasn’t playing to his standard on defense as @_AnalyKnicks shows in this detailed analysis. He was struggling to hit non-baseline threes.

The uneven play led to outside criticism of both Bridges and the Knicks. But the support for Bridges in the locker room never wavered.

Josh Hart said several times that he wasn’t worried about Bridges. Jalen Brunson echoed those thoughts.

Bridges says he wasn’t pressing. Why?

“Just because the shots I was taking, liking them. And then a new team. (That’s) pretty much it,” he said Sunday. “Never played with an offensive talent like KAT as a big. Never dealt with a popping big a lot. Just something we had to adjust to and it’s just going to take time.”

The Knicks found Bridges early on Sunday – and he delivered. The former Net hit five of his seven shots in the first quarter as New York built on a 33-10 lead on a depleted Pelicans team. He finished the night with seven made threes and 12 makes on 19 shot attempts.

“That’s our guy. We trust him. We trust him to shoot the shots. Mid-ranges, turnarounds. We want him to be aggressive. That’s the Mikal we know,” Hart said after the game. “And in the season, there’s going to be peaks and valleys, ups and downs; that’s why you don’t panic. Think about averages. Everything averages out. So you have a bad 10-game spell or a…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/knicks-mikal-bridges-bounces-back-045023647.html

Author : SNY

Publish date : 2024-12-02 04:50:00

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