{"id":110171,"date":"2024-12-07T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=110171"},"modified":"2024-12-07T05:26:26","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T10:26:26","slug":"mikal-bridges-not-shying-away-slump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/07\/mikal-bridges-not-shying-away-slump\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikal Bridges Not Shying Away From Early Slump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikal Bridges<\/a> was benched by the New York Knicks in the fourth quarter of their close game against the Charlotte Hornets last week. The Knicks won narrowly by a point, 99-98. Adding Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> has been a peaceful transition and has helped the Knicks become a top offense in the league. However, Bridges’ introduction has been anything but smooth since his landing in New York.<\/p>\n

Bridges was selected 10th overall in the 2018 NBA draft. He played college basketball for the Villanova Wildcats, winning two National Championships in 2016 and 2018. Bridges helped the Phoenix Suns reach the NBA Finals in 2021. The 28-year-old was acquired by the Knicks in July from the Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n

Mikal Bridges Not Shying Away From Early Slump<\/h2>\n

Mikal Bridges\u2019 Performance This Season<\/h3>\n

Bridges has averaged 16.3 points per game and is shooting the lowest percentage on three-point tries in his career. His scoring numbers are the lowest since his 2021-22 season with the Suns. Mikal Bridges scored eight points on 3-for-10 shooting in the game against Charlotte on November 29. Head coach Tom Thibodeau used Bridges for only three defensive possessions in the last eight-and-a-half minutes of the game. However, the ex-Villanova star bounced back on Sunday night with a stellar performance in a 118-85 against the New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n

Performances Against Charlotte And New Orleans<\/h3>\n

Bridges\u2019 struggles led to his benching in the pivotal fourth quarter against Charlotte. When New York acquired Mikal Bridges<\/a> from Brooklyn, they did not expect him to be benched in a tight game. However, the two-way player found himself in that position last Friday. His play led to heavy criticism from the outside.<\/p>\n

Bridges rebounded nicely though and led the Knicks to a huge home win against the Pelicans on December 1, scoring 31 points with four rebounds. The team continues to uphold their support for the star ex-Villanova player. The Knicks found Bridges early in the December 1 game, hitting five of his seven shots in the first quarter to build a 33-19 against a struggling Pelicans team. Bridges finished the night with seven made threes and made 12-29 shot attempts. He started the game aggressively, and the defense took care of their side of the floor. The Knicks held the depleted Pelicans to just 28 points in the opening half. The Pelicans were depleted with injuries<\/a> before and during that game.<\/p>\n

Bridges’ Play The Last Two Games<\/h3>\n

The Knicks defeated the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night at home 121-106 to advance in the NBA Cup. Bridges finished that game playing 36 minutes with 19 points and five assists. Bridges also shot 8-13 from the field in Tuesday night’s victory.<\/p>\n

New York surged to another home win Thursday night against Charlotte, dominating the game 125-101. Bridges played nearly the whole game with 47 minutes. Bridges scored 19 points on 7-15 from the field with three rebounds and seven assists. Coach Thibodeau does have a reputation for maxing out his players’ minutes as much as possible. Bridges has a reputation for being available when needed, making him and Thibodeau a match made in heaven.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Mikal Bridges has been in a slump early this season, which can derail any player’s confidence. The Knicks gave up five first-round picks to acquire him from the Nets. Bridges is shooting 32.9 percent from three and can look uncomfortable taking three-pointers. He has been poor defending the perimeter on some nights. However, he has responded well with play against Orlando and Charlotte. While the last two games did show some promise, Bridges will need to step up moving forward and show why the Knicks traded for him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mikal Bridges was benched by the New York Knicks in the fourth quarter of their close game against the Charlotte Hornets last week. The Knicks won narrowly by a point, 99-98. Adding Karl-Anthony Towns has been a peaceful transition and has helped the Knicks become a top offense in the league. However, Bridges’ introduction has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4858,"featured_media":110983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12],"tags":[1484],"class_list":["post-110171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","tag-mikal-bridges"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4858"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110171"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110984,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110171\/revisions\/110984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}