{"id":139733,"date":"2026-02-20T07:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/139733\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T07:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:06:14","slug":"knicks-mikal-bridges-benched-down-the-stretch-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/139733\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks’ Mikal Bridges benched down the stretch again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid one of his disappearing acts, Mikal Bridges was again benched in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

The guard sat the final 9 \u00bd minutes of Thursday\u2019s 126-11 Knicks defeat to the Pistons<\/a> at the Garden, with Landry Shamet getting the playing time and trust from coach Mike Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cLandry had hit a couple shots. We needed to score,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThey\u2019re both really good defenders. And so I just stayed with Landry. But it wasn\u2019t anything where, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m going to sit Mikal because he\u2019s not doing this, or he\u2019s not doing that.\u2019 We were looking to score points and Landry was the only one to make a shot from behind the arc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shamet scored 15 points in 28 minutes Thursday. <\/p>\n

Bridges, who was acquired for five first-round picks and recently signed a $150 million extension<\/a>, scored just eight points in 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

Bridges was also 0-for-3 from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

\"NewMikal Bridges looks to pass the ball during the Knicks\u2019 126-111 loss to the Pistons at the Garden on Feb. 19, 2026. Imagn Images<\/p>\n

He was also benched in favor of Shamet down the stretch of victories this month over the Sixers and Lakers.<\/p>\n

There has been more tanking discourse than ever across the NBA.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Adam Silver said during the All-Star break that tanking has been \u201cworse this year than we\u2019ve seen in recent memory\u201d<\/a> and that he is considering \u201cevery possible remedy\u201d to combat it.<\/p>\n

Brown weighed in on potential solutions before the team\u2019s game against the Pistons on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely trying to make somebody fight for it at the end of the season,\u201d the Knicks coach said. \u201cWhether you have a small tournament before the playoffs start or something like that to where it\u2019s not just guaranteed that the team with the worst record gets the best odds. That may change it a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already, the Jazz and Pacers have been fined $500K and $100K, respectively, for sitting healthy players in recent games.<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s Knicks certainly aren\u2019t in the tanking conversation, and his teams throughout his tenure have never really fit that description. <\/p>\n

But he recognizes it has gotten out of hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam\u2019s a smart guy and he\u2019s figured out a lot of really good things for this league,\u201d Brown said, \u201cso I have a ton of faith in him that he will figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

OG Anunoby, with one less toenail, made his Knicks return Thursday \u2014 scoring eight points in 32 minutes.<\/p>\n

He missed the Knicks\u2019 past four games before the All-Star break with right toenail avulsion. <\/p>\n

He said that he had to have his full toenail removed and that there was \u201ca lot of pain\u201d and that \u201cit\u2019s an open wound, like it\u2019s just flesh and raw, bloody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anunoby is normally tasked with guarding Cade Cunningham, whom the Knicks faced Thursday. <\/p>\n

Without Anunoby, the Knicks were routed by the Pistons 118-80 in the first of those last four games before the break.<\/p>\n

Agent Rich Kleiman took a dig at Knicks owner James Dolan on social media.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Madison Square Garden Sports announced Wednesday that it is considering splitting the Knicks and Rangers into two, separately traded public entities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Boardroom, which Kleiman co-founded with Kevin Durant, posted on Instagram a message that read: \u201cYou may soon be able to own a piece of the Knicks and Rangers.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kleiman responded to that post: \u201cNo thanks unless the owner was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kleiman represents Durant, who notably spurned the Knicks for the Nets in free agency in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid one of his disappearing acts, Mikal Bridges was again benched in the fourth quarter. The guard sat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1267,14063,21,9,11,1104,10,1558,319],"class_list":["post-139733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-mikal-bridges","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-ny-sports-minute","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}