Chris Herring, ESPN senior writer
on Christmas Day, With his team trailing by three late in the third quarter, New York Knicks wing Mikal Bridges decided he wasn't going to be denied.
Seeing teammate Deuce McBride take a long jumper, Bridges ran to the paint and braced himself for a potential offensive rebound. After passing McBride's shot back into the air, Bridges caught the ball, positioned himself for a short-corner jumper of his own, and absorbed Spurs guard Keldon Spurs in one fluid motion. Johnson's contact.
The shots fell and Madison Square Garden descended into chaos. Bridges was downed by Johnson's foul, but he stayed on the floor and flexed his right bicep, then his left bicep, for the television cameras before tying the game on the ensuing free throw.
Bridges had a great day, scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter, including two game-deciding jump shots, and finished with 41 points. The performance was the strongest of Bridges' time with the Knicks and the high point of a month for Bridges, who had the NBA's highest effective field goal percentage among players averaging at least 15 attempts per game in December. rate (65.7%).
The excitement surrounding the showcase helped balance the ups and downs for Bridges, a seven-year veteran whose five first-round picks the Knicks traded to the Brooklyn Nets team in order to secure the fee, which is believed to be the most first-round draft picks in NBA history for a player who has never been an All-Star.
Josh Hart, who won a national championship with Bridges at Villanova and later reunited with Bridges in New York, said his friend's Christmas performance was vindicated.
"When you see someone put in the work, you know what they're capable of and what their character is. We know that," Hart said. "We knew it was just a matter of time before he found 'it'. Now that he's found it and (the media) haven't said anything, get your apology form out and I'll give him the flowers tomorrow."
Bridges will return to play in Brooklyn for the first time since the trade on Tuesday, but the jury is still out on what that will look like with the Knicks. A lot of that stems from the fact that Bridges is still adjusting to a much different role than the one he's had with the Nets for a year and a half.
halftime is over Impatient fans on social media are already sounding the alarm ahead of New York's season opener against the Boston Celtics:
Is Mikal Bridges' jump shot broken?
Against the Celtics, he took just five shots in the first half and missed all five. "None of those shots were close," TNT analyst Reggie Miller said on the TV show, sounding confused. (Bridges rebounded from a disastrous second half, scoring 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting.)
While the fan reaction may have been hasty, it wasn't the result of a lackluster first half of the regular season. Bridges, a career 37.5 percent 3-point shooter who opted to overhaul his jump shot in the offseason, shot just 11 percent from 3-point range in the preseason (18 2 hits).
Bridges said he's just trying to adjust his shooting form to be more similar to the one he used in college and said he's not worried about it. (His average wrist height on catch-and-shoot 3s is 4 inches higher than last season, the third-largest increase among NBA players with 100 or more attempts, according to tracking by Second Spectrum.)
The struggles on the perimeter have continued through the first 19 games, as Bridges has been the NBA's top corner three-point shooter over the past six years, shooting 31.6 percent from the floor during that span. But a breakout performance against the New Orleans Pelicans, in which he made 7 of 12 shots from deep, helped temper some of his emotions.
While all the attention has been on his shot, or the way he takes his jump shot compared to before, his game has changed even more since he joined the Knicks. As the team's third or fourth option on offense, Bridges' ball-handling responsibilities are significantly reduced from his time in Brooklyn.
As one of the Nets' main playmakers, he averaged 67.9 touches per game, a 19% drop from 82.4 last season. His usage rate was just 18.6%, his lowest since his last full season with the Phoenix Suns in 2021-22.
"You want everybody to sacrifice for the betterment of the team, and he did that," coach Tom Thibodeau said when asked to assess Bridges' season so far. "We know what he's done in this league. But when you have the players that we have, they all have to make sacrifices. He's played really good basketball for us. As time goes on, it gets better and better. The better.”
He is very good in the mid-range, shooting 50% on two-point jumpers, ranking fifth in the NBA among players with at least 100 attempts. (He's even more efficient around the rim, hitting almost 76 percent of his layups and dunks; that's impressive since he shot a career-low 57 percent from the field last season.)
The trade-off, though, is that Bridges seems to settle at times, opting to pull up or pass rather than challenge the rim protector. He averaged nearly four free throws per game last year and now only takes one a night. In 16 games between November 1 and December 1, Bridges attempted just six free throws.
But despite playing alongside former college teammate Jalen Brunson and offseason acquisition Karl-Anthony Towns on offense, Bridges' biggest shift has come on defense, where the team has forced him to play even harder than before. Work hard. before.
as seconds At the Garden last month, Hawks star Trae Young took a knee and pretended to roll the dice on the Knicks' giant halftime logo as an exhausted Bridges began to unbutton his jersey and walk off the floor.
Bridges did a great job pursuing the three-time All-Star. On December 11, when the Knicks lost in the NBA Cup quarterfinals, Young scored 22 points on 22 shots, but failed to score a point on 6 shots in the fourth quarter.
If Bridges wasn't tired enough, he leads the league in minutes played this season and hasn't missed a game in his six-plus-year career.
That night, the Hawks ran as many as 50 screens against Bridges as he guarded ball handlers, the most any NBA player has faced this season. Overall, "The Bridge" played nearly 25 times a night, its highest showing since Second Spectrum began tracking the show 12 years ago. Bridges guarded Young well in Monday's win, limiting him to 8-of-22 shooting while also forcing nine turnovers and just six assists. (On one play, Bridges trailed Young throughout the entire possession, forcing a shot clock violation that ultimately gave the Garden a foothold.)
But in his previous role, he spent the entire game guarding big wings rather than floor generals, a defensive adjustment Thibodeau used to free up the smaller Brunson, who had little to no defense. So agile or powerful.
When asked about the transition from having to defend so many ball screens from one night to the next, Bridges largely downplayed the task and how taxing it might be for him. "Obviously the role is a little different for every team. I just try to do the best I can, honestly."
"Teams want to try to attack him because it's a different position for him; especially early on," one Western Conference scout said of Bridges' recurring role as point-of-attack defender. "If you get past him early on, you're probably going to force all kinds of aggressive rotations because teams are still used to having Towns at the basket. And the collective trust doesn't look like it's there."
It's not a smooth start for the defense for Bridges and the Knicks. Especially when it comes to rim protection. But as that end of the pitch improved, the team's fortunes soared. A lot of that stems from the fact that Bridges and Towns are used to their roles. (Towns has plenty of experience as a rim protector, but spent the previous two seasons playing alongside four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert.)
As a duo, Bridges and Towns allowed 110 points per 100 possessions in pick-and-roll defense starting on November 28 and only 101 points per 100 games thereafter.
The question that remains unanswered is how good Bridges and the Knicks can ultimately be. The club spent a ton of draft capital on Bridges and then paid OG Anunoby a hefty salary with the goal of having one of the best wing combinations in the league.
The Knicks have dominated the underdogs in December so far and have a 16-3 record against teams below .500, looking like a team capable of soundly beating the very teams they should be beating. team. Bridges has been arguably the Knicks' best player against less competition during this stretch. The Knicks, on the other hand, have trailed the NBA's best teams in better games -- just 12-13 against teams at .500 or better -- and often failed to stop the defense in the few key moments. .
If Bridges can lead them consistently against the league's best, it would show that the historic draft pick spent to acquire him was worth it.
ESPN Research's Matt Williams contributed to this article.