A rough road trip for New York Knicks forward Mikal Bridges was capped off with one of his performances of the season. He finished with just eight points on 3-for-10 shooting from the floor and 1-for-4 from three in the win over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday.
Mikal Bridges has had a rough start to his Knicks career
He was also a team-worst -14 despite winning by one point, and was benched down the final stretch of the game in favor of Miles McBride. Bridges’ struggles on both ends of the floor have not been ideal given the haul of draft picks New York gave up to bring him to the Mecca over the summer.
Bridges spoke to reporters about his recent mishaps following Friday’s game and pledged that better results would come from him on the court:
“I got to play better. I’ve been inconsistent,” said Bridges via the New York Post’s Stefan Bondy. “I’ve had some games where I’ve played good, some I haven’t. Just got to find a rhythm within the team. That’s pretty much it. Not even 20 games in, still just trying to figure it out.”
Bridges has a lot of unseen potential
During the Knicks’ five-game road trip, Bridges averaged just 13 points and shot 36.5% from the floor and 29.4% from three. He shot 50% or above from the floor just once during the road trip, which came on Nov. 20 against his former team, the Phoenix Suns.
On the season, he is averaging 15.5 points but is shooting a career-low 30.6% from three-point range. Despite that, he leads the NBA in minutes thanks to the versatility he provides at multiple positions, but most of that talent has yet to show up since coming over in an offseason trade.
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Of course, the season is still young, so Bridges has time to turn things around, and the expectation is that he will at some point. However, the Knicks would still like to see him get going given the ceiling this year’s team has as title contenders.
Bridges catching fire makes all the difference for the Knicks to be at their best. He will have his next opportunity to start the turnaround on Sunday, when the Knicks head back home to face the New Orleans Pelicans.
