INDIANAPOLIS — Ahead of Friday’s game against the Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks guard Mikal Bridges said he alone is responsible for pulling himself out of a shooting slump that has led coach Mike Brown to bench him for long stretches of recent games.
“I just look in the mirror, I just got to be better,” Bridges said. “Nobody else to blame but me and I just got to go out there and, whatever it is, just be better and go harder.”
Bridges did not offer specifics on what he needs to change, but the numbers tell their own story. Entering Friday’s game, he was shooting 32.9 percent from the field overall and just 26.5 percent on 3-pointers, despite getting many open looks.
The slump has prompted Brown to cut Bridges’ minutes and lean on reserve Landry Shamet to close games instead. Bridges played just 17 minutes in Wednesday’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers — the fourth time in 11 games he has logged 17 minutes or fewer.
“When times are tough, you just gotta own up to it and just be better,” Bridges said.
Brown said after Wednesday’s loss that it would be “hard to find minutes” for Bridges and “even for times for Josh Hart,” pointing to strong play from reserves Shamet and Deuce McBride.
The Knicks have $150 million invested in Bridges, who said this year he is not counting on a late-season turnaround like the ones that carried him into strong playoff runs the past two seasons.
“I try to be my best throughout the whole year. Obviously, struggles come, which obviously nobody wants, but like I said, in these moments, gotta look in the mirror and you’re tested the most and just see what you’re made of,” Bridges said. “So, just gotta be better.”
That marks a shift in tone from last season, when Bridges attributed a similar decline to a lack of opportunities rather than his own play. “Sometimes you try to get open and sometimes it doesn’t find me. Just try to find ways to stay aggressive,” he said in March, roughly a month before a strong playoff stretch. “That’s it.”
This time, Bridges placed the blame squarely on himself. “I got to do everything better,” he said.
Brown said he has not considered removing Bridges from the starting lineup, calling that a “panic decision” this early in the season, even as the Knicks face a crowded rotation at the wing position with Bridges, Hart, Shamet and McBride all competing for minutes.
Hart, who played 26 minutes in Wednesday’s loss, acknowledged the team faces difficult choices ahead. “There are several different ways you can look at it,” Hart said. “You can look at it, if [Shamet and McBride] have it going, cool. Good. You could look at it like, ‘Okay, maybe something else has to change [like a trade].’ But there’s going to good days with that, bad days. But whatever allows the Knicks the best opportunity and chance to win, that’s the most important.”
