It was April 23 — all over again.
It had been more than six weeks since the Knicks suffered a loss, 45 days since Mikal Bridges was benched in a scoreless effort that led to the Hawks taking a 2-1 lead in the first round.
But after six-plus weeks as one of the driving forces behind the second-longest win streak in postseason history, Bridges reverted to the indecisive wing prone to disappearing acts, scoring just two points, before getting benched for much of the fourth quarter in the Knicks’ 115-111 loss in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
Mikal Bridges made little impact on the Knicks’ Game 3 loss to the Spurs at MSG. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin“We gotta be better,” said Bridges, who shot 1-for-5 from the field. “I gotta be better for next game.”
Bridges, the only player on the Knicks roster with significant NBA Finals experience before last week, looked overwhelmed under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, needing just 29 minutes to lose the aggressiveness and confidence he’d built during the team’s previous 13 games.
Barely three minutes into Monday’s game, Bridges was on the bench after committing two fouls, and he never gave himself a chance to get in rhythm, repeatedly looking away from the rim when the ball hit his hands.
Though Bridges was brilliant in the Game 2 win in San Antonio — scoring 20 points, with six rebounds and six assists — he took just six shots in Game 1, the fewest he’d attempted since the first round.
Mikal Bridges drives down court as San Antonio Spurs guard De’aaron Fox gives chase in the fourth quarter. Charles Wenzelberg / New York PostIn the 2021 NBA Finals with Phoenix — when the Suns blew a 2-0 series lead — Bridges scored 27 points in a Game 2 win, then averaged just over four shots per game in four straight losses to the Bucks.
“Offensively, we got a little stagnant,” Bridges said. “We just gotta keep moving and spacing. … They just played harder than us, more physical. … It starts with me defensively. I think I did a bad job defensively. They scored a good amount of times when I was in throughout the game. For me, it starts with defense and feeding off of that.”
Two years of inconsistency and anger over the five first-round picks traded for Bridges had been forgotten when Game 3 began, when Bridges received a hero’s welcome during introductions.
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When the final buzzer sounded — crushing the thousands who spent thousands on one of the most anticipated games in the Garden’s history — Bridges was back in a familiar place, trying to make sense of a night to forget.
“We’re gonna be all right,” Bridges said. “We’re gonna regroup and learn from our loss.”
