Miles McBride understands the premise. As one of the Knicks’ better perimeter defenders, he sees the workload Mikal Bridges carries on a nightly basis.
It’s why McBride is yelling “First Team All-Defense!” at his locker.
Because nine times out of 10, it’s Bridges who’s responsible for guarding the opposing team’s best player.
This is his new life after the trade that sent four first-round picks plus a pick swap to the Nets for his services.
On many nights, Bridges has lost his matchup, and even though defending the league’s elite players is more a function of team defense than individual effort, it’s the burden he singularly wears as the team’s dedicated point of attack defender.
“Sometimes,” McBride tells the Daily News, “guys are going to get you.”
For Bridges, Monday was not one of those nights.
Instead, many in attendance as part of a sellout Madison Square Garden crowd for the Knicks’ Monday night victory over the Atlanta Hawks rose to their feet and applauded Bridges’ unrelenting effort.
It happened with just over six minutes left in the first quarter: Bridges hounded crafty Hawks’ All-Star Trae Young, The Garden’s cheers intensifying every time the Knicks star cut-off one of Young’s driving lanes.
The Garden then erupted when Bridges forced a 24-second shot clock violation on one of the more talented scorers in all of basketball.
“I know he’s crafty and didn’t want him to score, and I know my teammates have my back and just trying to guard him,” Bridges said after the game. “I heard The Garden. It got loud.”
Young finished with a team-high 27 points but shot an inefficient 8-of-22 from the field. He turned the ball over nine times to just six assists, his decision-making troubles exacerbated under the pressure Bridges applied from the opening tip.
“To guard Trae; he’s such a tough cover. And there’s a million pick-and-rolls you have to defend. Sometimes you can defend them really well and he can make [a shot],” head coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “So I thought he was really disciplined. You have to be that. And he kept going. So I think that’s important.”
It was especially welcoming given the Knicks’ struggles stopping Young and the Hawks earlier this season. Monday’s victory was only a month and a week removed from one of the more embarrassing losses of the Knicks season, an NBA Cup quarterfinal loss Young punctuated by rolling a set of imaginary die on The Garden’s center-court logo.
Young shot 8-of-22 that night, and 7-of-21 from the field against the Knicks on Nov. 6 — both wins over New York — but logged double-digit assists on with three or fewer turnovers on both occasions.
Bridges’ defensive effort made the difference on Monday.
“He was just relentless. That’s the way you’ve gotta be with a guy like Trae because he’s gonna have the ball in his hands,” McBride told The News. “He’s running the most pick and rolls in the league. [Mikal has] been relentless and continuously pursuing the ball.”
And it’s what the Knicks need to see more of — because the challenges won’t stop any time soon.
OG Anunoby has not primarily guarded point guards in Thibodeau’s defensive scheme. It’s largely Bridges tasked with chasing around the opponent’s lead guard. That means battles with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, Donovan Mitchell and, against the Boston Celtics, Jayson Tatum.
“The thing you appreciate about what he does is he does it every night,” said Thibodeau. “Every night there’s a tough cover. He doesn’t run away from it. He embraces it. That’s what you need.”
Bridges is attempting to anchor the New York defense from the outside-in. This is his new life on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge. The offense has come along, and his 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting helped lift the Knicks to victory, but offense isn’t the problem in New York.
Fixing the defense is top priority, and if Bridges can guard every night the way he did against Young, it will be a big step in the right direction — though his job description requires guarding players who get paid hundreds of millions of dollars to get by any defender, Bridges included.
“It’s a good challenge. That’s what I’m here for. That’s what I get paid for,” he said. “And like I always said, I got my teammates behind me so it’s never just me against that guy. So it’s just team defense and try my best to try to disrupt.”
“It’s the league. Every night is gonna be somebody different, and I feel like for him, he’s just a person where it’s like, he’s gonna do whatever he can to slow them down,” McBride added. “I feel like his approach to every night knowing that he’s gonna have that challenge has been great for us.”
