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Mikal Bridges made news before the New York Knicks tipped off on Wednesday when he publicly lobbied for head coach Tom Thibodeau to play his starters fewer minutes. As it turned out, the Knicks needed every one of Bridges’ 41 minutes against the Portland Trail Blazers.
With Jalen Brunson still sidelined, Bridges took the reins of New York’s offense and scored 33 points, including the game-winning 3-pointer, in what was perhaps his best game with the Knicks.
The game was a classic even before the Bridges dagger, though. It included 42 lead changes in 53 minutes. And were it not for the shot Bridges drilled at the end, we’d remember this game for an entirely different reason. With 7.2 seconds remaining and the Knicks leading 111-110, Josh Hart needed to simply inbound the ball and wait for a teammate to get fouled so New York could extend the lead to two or three.
Instead, he committed one of the rarer violations in all of basketball. Hart moved several steps before he inbounded the ball, which isn’t allowed unless the inbound is coming after a score. This inbound came after the ball went out of bounds on Portland, so Hart was not allowed to maneuver the baseline. As a result of his blunder, the ball went back to the Blazers.
The call was so rare that broadcaster Mike Breen said on the air that he had never seen it at the end of a game in 33 years. The Blazers took advantage. While Mitchell Robinson blocked Deni Avdija on his go-ahead layup attempt, Avdija secured the rebound, made the putback and got fouled in the process.
That gave Portland a 113-111 lead, but with the game on the line, Thibodeau drew up the play for Bridges. He delivered with a game-winning triple.
After the game, Tom Haberstroh noted a somewhat shocking bit of NBA history that came on this Bridges shot. The tracking-era record for most lead changes in a game is 43. That was set in an overtime game between the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks. In that game, Bridges hit a game-winner to secure a 114-113 victory for his team, just as he did tonight in a game that included the second-most lead changes of the tracking era (42).
It’s been an uneven debut season for Bridges with the Knicks. Despite rejoining his Villanova teammates Brunson and Hart, Bridges is having his worst 3-point shooting season since his rookie year. His defense hasn’t been up to its typical standard either, and after the Knicks gave up five first-round picks to get him, expectations were understandably high.
Perhaps this shot is a sign of things to come for Bridges down the stretch with the postseason approaching. If nothing else, Hart owes him a big thank you for the bail out.
