Mikal Bridges works on this shot all the time. So frequently, it felt good when it left his hands.
Facing a three-point deficit with just seconds left in the fourth quarter of Game 2 against the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday, Jalen Brunson crossed-over Detroit’s Dennis Schroder and got to the paint, where Pistons center Jalen Duren shifted to protect the rim.
As Duren cut-off Brunson’s lane, Bridges created one of his own: His man, Malik Beasley, turned his head towards the paint, and Bridges darted to the top of the key. An escape hatch for Brunson, then trapped in no man’s land.
Brunson made the read. Bridges caught the ball in rhythm. Beasley was too far behind to impact the shot.
“It was straight,” said Bridges, at his locker, discussing the look he got at the rim. “I thought it was cash, but [it was] short.”
Cash it was not. The ball clanked off the front of the rim. The Pistons recovered it. They went on to win, 100-94, to tie the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series at one game apiece as it shifts to Detroit for Games 3 and 4.
“It’s the right play, make the right play. Shot it good, we didn’t make it,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said of the play after the game. “As long as you shoot it good, he works on it all the time. It’s a good shot, and we missed.”
Bridges bounced back from a quiet Game 1 (eight points, 4-of-9 shooting from the field) and scored 19 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the field to go with three steals in Game 2.
But the Knicks lost on their own home court with a clear advantage in both talent on paper and playoff experience, and Bridges, on a hot-shooting night, came up short with the game on the line.
“You want to win the game. You want to make that shot,” he said, candidly, after the game. “It sucks, but ain’t nothing I can do about it. Got to get to get ready for the next one.”
If the Knicks are going to reach their fullest playoff potential, they’ll need Bridges to play at a high level, including in late-game situations where defenses take away New York’s first option.
“We’ve got confidence in him all the time,” teammate Josh Hart said after the game. “I don’t even know what he had or what he shot or whatever, but we had two good looks.”
Brunson also missed a wide-open three on the Knicks’ following possession. New York would have trailed by just one with less than six seconds left in regulation had the All-Star guard’s shot fallen.
“JB had a walk-up three, ‘Kal had an open three. We’re living with that,” Hart continued. “‘Kal’s a guy that puts the work in, so we’re comfortable and confident with him taking that shot and we’ll live with the result.
“I’m rocking with him until the end. When he shot that I thought it was good. Sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in.”
Karl-Anthony Towns also thought Bridges was money with the game on the line. Bridges made a shot from the same exact spot to lift the Knicks to a wild March 12 overtime victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Towns echoed the same sentiment as others on the team: full trust in Bridges’ abilities to deliver under pressure.
“We all saw what happened in Portland, so he doesn’t need much space to get a game-winner going,” Towns said at his locker after the game. “He had a great look, JB got a great look. So you live with those shots.”
Bridges averaged 17.6 points on 50% shooting during the regular season. He shot 58% from the field and 50% from three-point range during clutch situations, defined by the NBA as the final five minutes or overtime of a game within a five-point margin.
