Better Bridges

As the Knicks blew out an undermanned Pelicans team, Mikal Bridges calmed a lot of fears.

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Game 20: Knicks 118, Pels 85

• The Knicks were utterly dominant on both ends from the tip, going up 25-6 and 39-12 before eventually topping out at a 41-point lead.

• Mikal Bridges found himself, nailing 7-of-12 from deep en route to 31 points while playing strong defense throughout the night.

• New York’s stars had off shooting nights but contributed in other ways, as KAT had 17 first half rebounds, OG Anunoby totaled four blocks and three steals, and Jalen Brunson dished nine assists.

• Deuce McBride and Jericho Sims were again outstanding off the bench.

• Thibs (!) emptied his bench (!!) with over eight minutes remaining (!!!)

• The Pelicans stink.

Well, well, well…look who decided to show up.

If you were a betting man, and you asked for preseason odds that Mikal Bridges would forget how to play basketball as he entered his seventh NBA season, my guess is that you’d have gotten some pretty juice action.

Ever since he averaged 20 minutes a game off the bench for the National Champion Wildcats nearly a decade ago, Bridges’ superpower has been his consistency. He never gets too high, never gets too low, and until he was asked to play above his pay grade for the decimated Nets, he always made his teams better when he was on the court.

That’s what made his performance this season - represented by that unsightly blue 14, as in “14th percentile in on/off differential” - so jarring heading into last night. Bridges wasn’t brought here to be a superstar. He was brought here to be exactly what he’s always been, which is a guy who takes nothing off the table at either end of the court and finds advantages in every little nook and cranny he sees.

Well it took nearly a quarter of the season, but that dude finally showed up on Sunday night. For as dominant a performance as New York had as a team, it was impossible to have anything other than Bridges’ individual effort as the key takeaway.

It’s not just that he hit shots; it’s that he took them with confidence and without hesitation. On defense, Mikal continued to trend in the right direction. As a unit, this was their best effort of the season even considering the subpar competition. New Orleans began this game making just one of their first 17 shots from the field, and at no time were they comfortable in anything they ran.

OG Anunoby in particular was a demon. How’s this for a signature play?

It was a get well game for a player and a team that needed a little medicine.

The level to which this was not a fair fight was off the charts. How one-sided was it? The Knicks had a 29-point halftime lead with Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby shooting a combined 6-for-25 from the field. Most of those looks were good though, and if New York got normal shooting performances from its stars, the lead almost certainly would have exceeded 50 at some point.

The cookie jar just kept refilling with each additional possession.

This is what you’d expect from a contending team, coming back home after a long trip, playing against an overmatched opponent.

The Knicks haven’t looked like contenders very often this season, but the signs are getting more and more frequent: seven wins in nine games, including a blowout in Denver, a gritty win on a bad afternoon in Charlotte, and now a throttling of the Pelicans behind Mikal Bridges and a dominant defense.

I’ll save the full 20-game statistical check in for tomorrow’s newsletter, but it’s worth noting that for all of the consternation of the first month and change, the Knicks are 12-8 with the sixth best net rating in the NBA. They’ve played eight home games to 12 road games and left at least a couple wins on the table.

In other words, things could be worse.

💫 Stars of the Game 💫

⭐️ Jericho Sims

⭐️ ⭐️ Deuce McBride

Grouping these two guys together because they’ve become something of a dynamic duo for head coach Tom Thibodeau, entering the game at the same time midway through the first quarter and recking havoc during their entire stint.

Their two-man defense on this play midway through the second quarter is good enough to get our Juan, Please Juan Shining Moment of the Game:

We’re 20 games in and McBride has the best on court net rating on the team at plus-11.2 according to NBA.com. Jericho Sims is tied with Cam Payne for second at plus-8.9. Sims has become a genuine plus defensive anchor in the middle and a beast on the glass, with 13 rebounds in just 23 minutes yesterday. McBride might be the most confident shooter on the team if not in the entire league. He is shooting 40.5 percent on 7.0 3-point attempts per 36 minutes.

As a due, Knicks lineups featuring McBride and Sims are outscoring teams by nearly 13 points per 100 possessions and allowing just 103.6 points per 100 possessions, which would be tops in the league. Among 25 Knick duos that have played at least 100 minutes together, only two have a better defensive rating: McBride and Anunoby (103.1) and Sims and Anunoby (102.3).

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Mikal Bridges: Oh, how sweet it is.

You know what’s wild? Despite his putrid start, after 20 games, Bridges overall efficiency (54.3 eFG%) is barely lower than Brunson’s (55.7).

That stat is obviously skewed because Brunson averages almost as many made free throws per game (5.5) as Bridges has had all season (eight), not to mention the difficulty of some of his looks, which is still something of a necessary evil even with this high-powered offense.

But the point remains that for as bad as Bridges has seemed, much like the Knicks themselves, things could have been much worse.

Then again, for a guy who has been a metronome for the majority of his career, this was probably as bad as he could ever look.

Hopefully the worst is behind him.

Final Thought

Already looking forward to Tuesday.

NBA Cup or no NBA Cup, this will be a massive test against the third place Magic. They’ve won 12 of their last 13 games, all without Paolo Banchero.

If the Knicks are serious people, we’ll find out tomorrow night.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”