As Mikal Bridges sees it, his New York Knicks are finally on an upswing after a slow start to the season. Bridges helped lead the Knicks to a big 114-104 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday night. The Villanova product scored 21 points while taking a team-high 18 field goal attempts, nine of which he converted, against his former team. After the game, reporters wanted to know his prognosis of New York’s star-studded starting five as the season transitions away from its first stage.
Mikal Bridges: Knicks starting unit is “definitely better” after Nets win
Per SNY, the 28-year-old was asked what his comfort level is with the starting five’s offense now compared to the preseason, to which he replied:
“Yeah, I mean, definitely better. I think we just still got a lot of work to do. But we’re growing in the right direction. Now, defensively we just got to be better and just communicate to each other a little bit more. But offensively, I think we’re finding it pretty well, but, you know, it’s a journey. We’ve got to still get better. We’ve got lots of ways to go,” Bridges stated.
Knicks excelled on offense & have room to improve on defense after Nets victory
The Knicks’ starters put up one of their best games as a unit, as four of them scored 20 or more points. Karl-Anthony Towns led the way with 26 points, 15 rebounds, and six assists while OG Anunoby followed close behind with 24 points and Josh Hart pitched in 20.
Defensively, the Knicks allowed the Nets to shoot 41 percent from the three-point line. That won’t cut it for a team with title aspirations against a rebuilding franchise. Encouragingly, New York was able to hold Brooklyn’s Dennis Schroder to 2-11 shooting from the floor for eight points, and Cam Thomas to 4-11 shooting from the field for 16 points.
Bridges’ challenge to Knicks teammates is coming along
After dropping two straight games to the Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks earlier in November, Bridges openly called for his Knicks to “set the tone early” and all be better individually so they could thrive as a unit. They took steps in the right direction against the Nets despite finishing the first quarter with a narrow one-point lead.
Nonetheless, the Knicks (7-6) are now winners of two straight and slowly but surely gelling. From the looks of things, they’ll likely get big nights from an array of their starters from night to night, but for now, there’s much to feel good about for the ball club.
