Mikal Bridges doesn’t see the Cleveland Cavaliers’ continuity as the deciding factor on opening night at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.
“Obviously we have a new coach and new staff and learning everything, so they have that advantage,” Bridges said after practice at the team’s Tarrytown facility on Tuesday. “But that still don’t mean nothing when the game starts and we have that competitive nature out there for all of us just competing trying to win.
“Yeah, we’re excited.”
The Knicks can be as excited as they want. History says they should brace for turbulence.
Last summer, New York pushed its chips in — trading five first-round picks for Bridges, shipping Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota for Karl-Anthony Towns, and learning that Mitchell Robinson’s recovery from ankle surgery would stretch deeper into the year than hoped.
The payoff? A lopsided loss to Boston on opening night — a harsh welcome for a team still learning itself.
A year later, the parallels are hard to ignore. Robinson and Josh Hart remain question marks for Wednesday’s season opener, both having missed extended practice time. Knicks starters sat more than they played through five preseason games, stalling their ability to fully grasp new head coach Mike Brown’s offensive and defensive systems.
And while Cleveland isn’t the defending champion, the challenge is nearly as steep. The Cavaliers won 64 games last season and enter Year 4 of a core built around Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen — a group that’s grown together while New York’s roster has been reshaped almost entirely over the last two years.
“They’ve been together,” Bridges said. “Obviously we’ve been together for about a year, some guys a year and a half. But [Cleveland’s] coaching staff, I’m pretty sure they came into camp knowing exactly from Day 1 what they’ve been doing.”
Brown’s message has been consistent since the first day of camp: This is a marathon, not a sprint.
“The good thing about it is the finals or the championship round doesn’t happen until June, so we’ve got a long time to get there,” Brown said after practice on Tuesday. “So it starts on the daily. We can’t skip any steps. Every time you’re on the floor together, every day off, you just want to keep taking steps because it’s gonna be a process knowing that you may take one or two steps backwards, but hopefully we can regroup and take three, four, five [steps] forward.
“And it’s not just about me doing that or me being the catalyst because I was hired. It’s about the entire group. We have to be connected as a group and believe in each other. And if we do that, and we truly understand that it’s a marathon and it’s one day, one game, one shootaround, one practice at a time, then the path will lead us where we need to go.”
That path starts with Mitchell. Garland is expected to be limited with a toe injury suffered in camp, meaning Mitchell will shoulder the offensive load. The Knicks know that story well: Mitchell has averaged 27 points in his last five games against New York, including a regular-season sweep punctuated by 37- and 19-point blowouts.
Bridges, New York’s top perimeter defender, will likely take the assignment.
“Just how skillful he is, everything’s so deliberate. I think even how he works [in practice] is how he plays in a game,” said Bridges, who praised Mitchell’s development as a playmaker. “I think that’s been a big growth out of his game. He could always score, even when he was in Utah … but as he’s grown into the player he is, he’s been able to score and play-make as well.
“So just knowing that: three-level scorer, about 5-foot-10 with a size 17 shoe that can jump 50 inches in the air, so he’s just unorthodox a little bit.”
If the Knicks’ offense sputters, expect a heavy dose of Jalen Brunson. The All-NBA guard averaged just under 25 points in his last four games against Cleveland, and Wednesday’s matchup with Mitchell could showcase two of the East’s premier guards going head-to-head again.
“There are a lot of talented guys in this league, but usually the great ones are able to separate themselves from the talented, really good players because their competitiveness is probably a little higher as well as their consistency,” Brown said of Brunson and Mitchell. “They consistently bring it at a highly competitive level every single time they step on the floor.”
The Knicks are embracing the challenge — using a high-level opponent as an early barometer for growth, even as they brace for the growing pains that come with chasing something bigger by season’s end.
“I honestly think there’s no easy game. It’s the NBA and a lot of teams are really good and there’s teams that might not have enough wins that are really good teams,” said Bridges. “But a team like Cleveland who’s on top of the East, who wouldn’t want that challenge? That’s what you want. You want to see where you’re at Game 1. Obviously so many months to the end of the season, but it’s a good test to see a couple of the top teams that’ve been in the East what they look like to begin the season.”
