Barbara Barker: Knicks' Mikal Bridges value should show if they meet Celtics in next round
Knicks guard Mikal Bridges is defended by Hawks guard CJ McCollum in the first quarter during Game 5 of an Eastern Conference first-round matchup on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. Credit: J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Mike Brown has his ways of blocking out the noise
The Knicks coach prefers HGTV to ESPN. When he wants to relax, Brown says he will watch an episode of House Hunters International on his IPad. What he won’t do is watch SportsCenter or read what is being written about his team in the media or pay attention to what is being said about them on X or Instagram.
This may go a long way in explaining how Brown has been able to stick with his same starting five throughout this first-round series, despite the very loud outcry of public opinion that he needs to replace the struggling Mikal Bridges with someone else.
“Those guys have won a lot of games,” Brown said of his starters Tuesday hours before the Knicks won one more, taking a 3-2 advantage in their first round series with a decisive 126-97 win over the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks are now just one win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals, which could open in Boston sometime this coming weekend. If that indeed does happen, there may be a method to Brown’s madness of keeping Bridges as a starter despite the fact he scored in single digits for the third straight game this series which he entered with a team-low plus-minus rating of minus-22.
The Knicks don’t need Bridges to beat a team like the Hawks — not with the way the rest of the starters have been playing — but they are going to need him if they have any hope of getting past a Boston team. Make that a Boston team that is fired-up to avenge their second-round loss to the Knicks last season.
As much as he has struggled to do anything against a physical Atlanta team — see the end of Game 2 where chose to put up a midrange fade away jumper instead of driving to the hole — Bridges is much more valuable countering a finesse team like the Celtics.
Last season, Bridges redeemed an unremarkable regular season with clutch performances that gave the Knicks a 2-0 lead in the series. In Game 1, he sealed the overtime victory when he stole the ball from Jaylen Brown in the final seconds. In Game 2, he scored 14 points in the final quarter to help the Knicks overcome a 20-point deficit.
More than anything, this may be why Brown has refused to take him out of the starting lineup. The public humiliation of such a demotion could have repercussions beyond this series. Instead, the Knicks coach has attempted to thread the needle here, finding a way for his guard to save face while minimizing the impact he might have.
Bridges has been a starter in name only since missing the game-winning shot in Game 2. He was benched the majority of the second half in Games 3 and 4. Bridges was replaced by Miles McBride a little more than six minutes int the first quarter Tuesday night with the team leading by two points. The Knicks promptly took control of the game, finishing the quarter on a 23-12 run. Bridges finished the game with seven points, one rebound and one assist in 27 minutes of play.
Bridges has never been a fan favorite, mostly because of the giant haul of unprotected picks the team gave up to pry him from the Nets before last season. Many critics, most vocally Stephen A. Smith, have taken Bridges to task for not being worth what the Knicks gave up for, going so far as to claim the lack of tradeable picks might be what kept the Knicks from acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo this past offseason.
Yet, it’s not like Bridges traded himself to the Knicks, and it’s not like whining about the trade is going to do anything positive for the Knicks in this postseason.
With all the crazy things going on in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics are the biggest thing standing between the Knicks and their oft-stated goal of getting to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.
The Knicks still have one more game to win, but they have two tries and it looks like the Hawks are starting to run out of gas. Then, it will be time to turn the page and move onto a new opponent, and a new chance for Bridges.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
