Barbara Barker: Mikal Bridges has played major role in Knicks' playoff success
Mikal Bridges of the Knicks reacts against the Philadelphia 76ers during the fourth quarter in Game 3 of the NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals at Xfinity Mobile Arena on May 8 in Philadelphia. Credit: Getty Images/Emilee Chinn
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Knicks were in serious trouble and fingers of blame were pointing firmly at Mikal Bridges.
Fans were up in arms after Atlanta took a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series with a pair of one-point victories, and no one was feeling the heat more than Bridges. After missing a potential game-winning shot in Game 2, he had four turnovers and went scoreless in the Game 3 loss, missing all four of his attempts.
Notable media figures, including Boomer Esiason, Craig Carton and Stephen A. Smith, were practically begging coach Mike Brown to yank Bridges from the lineup.
Before Game 4, Brown acknowledged that everything was on the table. However, though he did reduce Bridges' playing time, he didn't take him out of the starting lineup, perhaps intuiting that such a move might cause more harm than good to a player whose defense they were going to need going forward.
“It’s always great when your coach has got trust in you,” Bridges said Saturday. “Yeah, that’s great. And teammates staying with it, keeping me confident as well. I think we all know the end goal is just trying to win games and do whatever it takes to win. Even in my mistakes, just try to do whatever it takes and know that I just gotta bounce back and learn from them.”
Brown’s faith in Bridges has paid off big time. He has played a significant role in the Knicks' seven-game winning streak, and they will need it to continue to pay off in the Eastern Conference finals when they face the Cavaliers, who stunned the Pistons, 125-94, in Detroit on Sunday night in Game 7 of their conference semifinal series.
As the primary point-of-attack defender, Bridges is going to have to face the two-headed guard attack of Donovan Mitchell and James Harden.
Bridges has shown he is capable of taking on a big-time challenge. He bounced back with a vengeance from his early playoff struggles, averaging 18.8 points in the last five games. He shot 67.8% overall (40-for-59), 75.0% from two-point range (33-for-44) and 46.7% from three-point range (7-for-15) in that span.
In the Knicks' 140-89 closeout win over the Hawks, he shot 10-for-12 and finished with 24 points, and he was even a bigger factor in the Knicks' sweep of Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Bridges served as the primary defender on Tyrese Maxey, who averaged 18.3 points, exactly 10 fewer than he averaged in the regular season. Maxey shot 3-for-19 from beyond the arc for the series and averaged 3.5 turnovers.
Bridges also made big contributions on offense against the 76ers, averaging 17.5 points and hitting 63.8% of his shots (30-for-47).
After practice on Saturday, Brown was asked about his decision to stay the course with Bridges.
“I don’t know if I was publicly backing him. I was just telling the truth. He can play, he’s been in this situation before, we’ve had success with him,” Brown said. “So I was just basically answering the questions regarding him. He’s earned the right to be there. He’s earned the right to do a lot of different things. And I was just reiterating it.
“He’s definitely an important piece of what we’re trying to do, as well as everybody else. He’s gotta do his job on both ends, and when he does, we’re pretty good. Not just him; when anybody else does, we’re pretty good. So he’s no different than anybody else.”
Well, he is different in one way. Bridges has always had to face extra scrutiny because of the giant haul of five first-round picks (four of which were unprotected) the Knicks gave up to acquire him from the Nets. Perhaps It’s time to stop thinking about that — Bridges didn’t make the trade — and start looking at what he needs to do for the Knicks to get to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.
After a lackluster 2024-25 regular season, Bridges came up big for the Knicks in the playoffs. It’s fair to say they might not have gotten past Boston if he hadn’t come up with big defensive plays in the final seconds of two of the Knicks' wins. So maybe it is no surprise that he’s found a way to take his game to the next level in the playoffs.
Said Bridges: “You can’t look at the past. You learn from it, but just be present and do what you gotta do to get better. I think that’s really it. Just learn from each game and try to get better every single game. And that’s really it. Like I said, I always try to play to help win and just keep trying to get better. That’s been the outcome.”
To this point, it has.
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.
