{"id":485403,"date":"2026-02-23T08:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/485403\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T08:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T08:59:11","slug":"why-knicks-late-game-mikal-bridges-benchings-could-be-necessary-amid-title-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/485403\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Knicks\u2019 late-game Mikal Bridges benchings could be necessary amid title chase"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Knicks\u2019 late-game Mikal Bridges benchings could be necessary amid title chase<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NEW YORK \u2013 The <\/a>New York Knicks<\/a>\u2019 18-point comeback victory over the Houston Rockets on Saturday night delivered an enthralling finish. Karl-Anthony Towns\u2019 defensive intensity led the fourth-quarter push that set up Jalen Brunson to save the day. With 5:04 left in the fourth quarter, though, head coach Mike Brown<\/a> continued a controversial late-game trend by sending Mikal Bridges to the sideline.<\/p>\n

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The coach replaced the starting wing with Landry Shamet<\/a>, telling reporters after the game that assistant coach Rick Brunson deserved credit for the idea<\/a>. On Thursday night against the Detroit Pistons, Bridges sat for the final 9:31 of the game. He also finished contests against the Sacramento Kings and Philadelphia 76ers in late January and early February, respectively, on the bench.<\/p>\n

Bridges replaced Towns<\/a> for the final five seconds of the game, with New York\u2019s four-point lead allowing them to focus on defense. But the 29-year-old wing that Leon Rose and the Knicks\u2019 front office signed to a $150 million extension this summer spent the vast majority of crunch time on the bench.<\/p>\n

He watched Brunson dice up Houston\u2019s defense<\/a> alongside Josh Hart, who sat to make way for the newly-acquired Alvarado. The Brooklynite recorded his third, fourth, and fifth steals of the game in those minutes, making just one of three late shots but providing the energy and aggression New York needed to close out Kevin Durant\u2019s group.<\/p>\n

Bridges replicates Celtics playoff magic with clutch 3-pointer vs. Bulls\"Kamil<\/p>\n

Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

On Sunday night, the second leg of the Knicks\u2019 weekend back-to-back, the team defeated the Chicago Bulls. Bridges closed the six-point win, hitting a pivotal 3-pointer to seal the victory with 27 seconds left. Up until then, though, the wing had just eight points on 3-9 shooting in over 29 minutes of playing time. The clutch 3-pointer pushed him into double figures and saved the Knicks\u2019 night.<\/p>\n

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The juxtaposition of late-game roles played by Bridges, from not playing at all to putting the dagger in Chicago\u2019s back, is representative of more than just an up-and-down Sunday night. The two-way wing delivers performances that include quarters, halves, or an entire game\u2019s worth of disappointing play. But, somehow, he often finds a way to make up for it in the end.<\/p>\n

In each of the team\u2019s first two games against the Boston Celtics in last year\u2019s playoffs, Bridges won the Knicks the game<\/a> with an incredibly timely defensive play. The second of those games featured a perfect example of Bridges\u2019 extreme swings. The wing failed to score in the first three quarters, but notched 14 points and his game-winning save in the fourth.<\/p>\n

Bridges\u2019 early-game struggles and late-game heroics on Sunday night did not give New York a victory with playoff-level importance. But it further demonstrated the wing\u2019s zero-to-hero range. Under a new coach in Brown, the Knicks are leaning into their depth as Bridges wanted last season. The players, Bridges included, can\u2019t afford to see it as an insult to finish games on the bench.<\/p>\n

Their competitive nature should allow them to use any crunch-time benchings as motivation. Someone like Shamet or Alvarado being red-hot from deep doesn\u2019t have to mean that a certain starter\u2019s play was unacceptable. Sometimes, the two coincide. Ultimately, the Knicks should not care.<\/p>\n

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Brown has stressed the importance<\/a> of \u201cfinding ways to win,\u201d and will likely continue to over the course of the season. That\u2019s something his group needs to pursue with equal fervor, regardless of who\u2019s on the court.<\/p>\n

Related: Gilbert Arenas pushes back on Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns \u2018soft\u2019 narrative<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: How Knicks\u2019 Jalen Brunson \u2018flipped switch\u2019 to deliver signature clutch comeback vs. Rockets<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why Knicks\u2019 late-game Mikal Bridges benchings could be necessary amid title chase appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[13034,7329,4576,5050,36783,61628,36782,5556,25171,36784,6043,355,361,2113,174816,6404,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-485403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-celtics","9":"tag-chicago-bulls","10":"tag-detroit-pistons","11":"tag-houston-rockets","12":"tag-jalen-brunson","13":"tag-josh-hart","14":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","15":"tag-kevin-durant","16":"tag-landry-shamet","17":"tag-mikal-bridges","18":"tag-mike-brown","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-new-york-knicks","21":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","22":"tag-rick-brunson","23":"tag-sacramento-kings","24":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}