Milwaukee – This is the Mikal bridges for which the Knicks have exchanged all these choices.
They would certainly like to continue to see this version.
Having needed an alpha with Jalen Brunson always sidelined with his ankle injury, the cities of Karl-Anthony in very big troubles and Og Anunoby with a calm start, Bridges took over as the main marker of the Knicks.
He recorded 26 points in a victory of 116-107 against the Bucks on Friday evening at the Fiserv Forum, 15 of which came in a second quarter-chammers.
From there, the Knicks never looked back.
Beyond the elevation of the top scorer, Bridges served as a de facto ball manager with Brunson, Miles McBride (groin) and Cam Payne (ankle) all injured.
Head coach Tom Thibodeau has chosen to start Delon Wright instead of Tyler Kolek, the only real leader available, which prompted Bridges to manage most of the task distribution.
Bridges admirably fulfilled the role, ending with five assists.
During the 11 games without Brunson, Bridges is on average 21.6 points.
“He’s not really a specialist. He’s a versatile player,” said Thibodeau about bridges. “He can get out of the dribbling. He can go pick-and-roll. He is super in transition. He is super in move without the ball. I like him in shared games. I think he reads things extremely good, and he knows how to get to his places, so his efficiency is very high.”
For its part, Wright collected a top of 12 points in 30 minutes.
Anunoby removed the pressure from the bridges in the second period and resumed late, paying 31 points, including 20 in the fourth quarter.
But it was the spark of the second quarter of the bridges that helped the Knicks to build an advance that they have never given in.
“I always try to be aggressive,” said Anunoby. “Depending on the situations, sometimes it comes or sometimes this is not the case. Today, I was really aggressive.”
The victory marked a rare strong projection against a quality opponent – the Knicks improved their record against the teams from more than 0,500 to 12-18.
They are also 6-5 years since Brunson was released, Friday being their first victory against a team more than 0,500 in this section.
The Bucks were without Star Damian Lillard, however, which suffers from a deep venous thrombosis.
But they still had a lot of firepower available in Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyle Kuzma and Brook Lopez.
Friday could also be a potential overview of the playoffs, the Knicks seated as a seeded n ° 3 in the East and the Bucks in sixth.
All injuries mean that the two teams will probably be different in the playoffs, but the Knicks will finish the regular season 3-0 in the match.
The bucks are 2-3 without Lillard, which, according to them, is indefinitely while he takes medication against blood.
However, they did not exclude it for the playoffs.
Knicks should love the way they accumulate in the match anyway.
Antetokounmpo led the bucks by scoring with 30 points but did not destroy the game, as it does so often.
Mitchell Robinson, after an approximate assault on Wednesday’s defeat against the Clippers, was the defender largely responsible for keeping Antetokounmpo.
He replied with one of his most active matches of the year since his return from his foot injury – he only scored two points but transported 10 rebounds, including four on the offensive level. This helped the knicks have the offensive glass.
They had 14 offensive boards to the three of Bucks. Robinson also played 18 minutes after recorded only 12 years on Wednesday.
“Obviously, packaging is always a large part of everything for me,” said Robinson. “I was a little wrapped the last two, three minutes in the first (half). I need to work on it. ”
The cities have collected 14 points. Kolek held up in his surprisingly limited minutes, recording five points and five assists. Josh Hart again completed the statistics sheet with 13 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists.
“You can’t say enough about what Og, Mikal and Josh have done,” said Thibodeau. “They just fought throughout the match. (Towns) had big problems. I thought that Mitch’s activity today was huge. It’s a good and solid team victory.”
