Knicks 100, Magic 91: Bridges to nowhere

If a tree falls in the woods with no one to hear it while the Knicks win, do you need to have an opinion about Mikal Bridges?

The New York Knicks won 100-91 in Orlando last night against a Magic team still sans star Paolo Banchero. Whether that opening sentence needed both parts – the score and the qualifier – probably comes down to whether your feet are planted more in the now or the world to come. A lot of life does.

With the win the Knicks passed the Magic for third in the East; if they win either of the teams’ remaining matchups they’ll have clinched the tiebreaker, too. Jalen Brunson scored 31. Karl-Anthony Towns had a 22/22/5 line, something only five Knicks ever have (four Hall of Famers and one decidedly not). As always, Josh Hart did some of everything, Miles McBride heard “DEUCE!” chants on the road and Precious Achiuwa was big and strong. But you already knew all that. Even if you missed the game, that’s the zoom-in most nights with those players, the story we hope runs deep into May and June. 

And then there’s Maude Mikal.

Bridges played his 500th straight game last night. You’re forgiven if you feel like he arrived in New York the same time Julius Randle and RJ Barrett did; the toxic spill of hot takes and faithlessness we’ve witnessed since Bridges’ arrival would make a health insurance CEO blush if those life-hating mutants had actual human blood running through their vessels. 

The traditional box score will tell you Bridges scored 17 on 11 shots last night. That’s good. It also shows him totaling a lone rebound, assist, block and steal. That’s not. The only things besides points the traditional box score shows Bridges had more than one of were his Noah’s ark of free throws attempted and made, and personal fouls: two each. The advanced box score credits him with four deflections and five contested shots. The eye test said he looked pretty good. So what to take away from all that?

I keep coming back to one number, and it’s not five (as in how many first-round picks the Knicks traded for him, plus a first-round swap). It isn’t 23 or 25, as in how many million Bridges is owed this year and next, nor is it 35, 40 or whatever number he’s hoping to average whenever he signs his next deal. The number is 26. As in how many games Bridges has appeared in as a Knick. As in whichever direction you’re steering whatever Bridges bandwagon you’re on, pump the brakes.

When Brunson reached his 26th game as a Knick, the team had just reached .500 while their someday captain was in the middle of a stretch of six of seven games scoring under 20 points. OG Anunoby’s 26th game with New York came four months after he did, in the playoffs against Philadelphia, thanks to elbow inflammation. Randle’s 26th featured him as the team’s leading scorer, with Elfrid Payton second and Marcus Morris the only other starter to reach double-figures.

Carmelo Anthony’s 26th game was a one-point win that came without Amar’e Stoudemire, though that’d surely be an anomaly; the world of 2011 knew those two’s best work lay ahead of them. 26 games into his Knickness, John Starks returned to John MacLeod’s bench after the first five starts of his NBA career saw him average fewer than eight points; Starks made just one 3-pointer in those games. In Patrick Ewing’s 26th game, the Knicks’ best player was a Pat who put up 26 and nine boards, only Cummings, not Ewing. Clyde Frazier was shut out over 10 minutes off the bench in his 26th game. You get the gist.

The Knicks as a whole are still undefined. We haven’t seen Mitchell Robinson with this group, and despite the payroll’s proximity to whichever apron triggers the Spanish Inquisition, Brock Aller and friends only need a subatomic strand of wiggle room to swing another deal. I still think ultimately McBride makes more sense as the fifth starter, where his shooting and on-ball defending make for a more complete unit, with Bridges’ ideal role as a spot starter and sixth man scoring in bunches off the bench. It’s a nice idea in my head.

But last night was another reminder that Bridges is a pretty good player on a pretty good team, that his fit with them is as much a work in progress as their fit as a whole and that there are worse conundrums in life than “Could our All-Star role player be more acclimated two months into his time with us?” Probably! But whatever you make of Bridges today likely has nothing to do with however you end up viewing his Knickerbocker legacy. 

It cuts both ways: there was a big trade acquisition the Knicks made in the 1990s who began his career here coming off the bench. Over his first 13 games, all as a reserve, he scored double-digits but thrice (23 percent), while in 68 starts the rest of the way he did so 52 percent of the time. But early days are early even when bright, and there were signs Charles Smith would maybe not be the seamless fit hoped for in cramming a big man at small forward: while Smith pulled in double-figure boards thrice off the bench, in those 68 starts he only did four times. 

That’s a whole horde of words meant to say I still don’t have any idea what to make of Bridges, his game or his fit. I’m still a fan of the move, if only because I’m too old to expect anything instantly anymore, particularly gratification. Next Knick game is a big one, with Towns returning to Minnesota for the first time as the new Knicks face the new Randle/Donte DiVincenzo Timberwolves. That’s not till Thursday, though, so not only is there no instant gratification, it’s not even extended-release. I imagine Friday there’ll be plenty to talk about, none of it revolving around Bridges. See you there.