Can't Write This S---.

Loud noises.

Good morning. If you slept through that one, you better buckle up…

Game 65: Knicks 114, Blazers 113 (OT)

• What in the hell just happened.

• This was a grimy game from the outset, with the Blazers defending well, dominating the offensive glass and shooting better than usual, but they also turning the ball over a ton over thanks to a game-ready Knicks defense.

• With the lead never more than eight points by either team, New York appeared to grab the reins after back-to-back KAT threes put the Knicks up six with 1:17 left, but two questionable fouls in the final minute of regulation gave Portland the free throws it needed to send the game to overtime.

• A defensive battle ensued in the bonus period with zero points scored by either team over a stretch of 2:47, but after Josh Hart got called for moving while inbounding the ball with 7.2 remaining, a Deni Avdija and-one put the Blazers up two with 3.1 left.

• Mikal Bridges, Mikal Bridges, Mikal Bridges, and for good measure…

• Mikal Bridges.

A day that started like that could only end like this:

Mere hours after the conclusion of an eyebrow-raising “he said, he said” exchange between he and his head coach, Mikal Bridges ended the wildest game the Knicks have played this season and maybe the most exciting NBA game of the year.

On a night when we saw 42 lead changes - one shy of the NBA record¹ since the league began tracking play-by-play data in 1996 and easily the most in the NBA this season - Bridges saved the most dramatic lead change for last.

There is so much to unpack from this game and the day that led up to it, but the only appropriate place to start is with the man who has been under the largest microscope since the day he arrived from across the river in a trade that will define this era of Knicks basketball, for better or for worse.

It would be an understatement to say that this has been a trying season for Bridges. He came here with the weight of the world on his shoulders because of what the front office gave up to get him and was immediately tasked with a plethora of thankless jobs that had far more downside than up. From guarding the opposing team’s best player with little backline help to being a third option while rarely having plays called for him to leading the league in minutes, miles run, and times put through the ringer by opposing ball-handlers, his coach and the fans, it’s been a lot.

We might not know for a while whether the frustration he voiced to the assembled media before the game is purely about his minutes or whether there are larger issues at play involving his role on offense and within the team generally, but it’s hard to look at the collective body of work and suggest that Bridges was a happy camper three quarters of the way into his Knicks career.

From that perspective, maybe the only way to get him back to playing with joy was for him to have perhaps the defining moment of this season all to himself.