DETROIT — Mikal Bridges finally showed signs of breaking out of his funk.
Now the Nets need to find ways to get he and Cam Thomas on the same page and cooking at the same time.
“Yeah, for sure,” Bridges said. “I mean, that’s the frustrating thing. I was getting to everything I wanted to get to these past games when I was struggling and [shots] just weren’t going in. So that was always [the] toughest thing: I’m getting to what I like and just the ball wasn’t falling. So just staying with it. Yeah, definitely wasn’t tripping. I’ve been in slumps before, so the only way to get yourself out of one is to shoot out of it. So I just kept playing my game and being aggressive.”
Bridges’ 29-point outing Saturday against the Pistons was encouraging, with seven assists, six boards and 9-for-17 shooting. The return leg is Tuesday in Detroit.
Brooklyn’s five-game losing skid coincided with Bridges’ five straight outings under 20 points, averaging just 13.8 on .308/.310/.706 shooting splits.
When the Nets went on a 7-2 run immediately preceding that, he’d averaged 24.6 points on .510/.511/.878 splits, so his importance is obvious. Somewhat more understated is their need to get both he and Thomas in sync together.
“I just think because I feel like we both score 25 a night,” Bridges said. “But yeah, I mean I just know it’s going to be tough offensively to guard us if we’ve both got it going, because if they start blitzing and trapping, you’ve got [Nic] Claxton rolling with Spencer [Dinwiddie] and Cam [Johnson] and then when [Dorian Finney-Smith] and everybody subs in. We have guys that can hoop, so it’s like you’re getting other guys that can shoot and play wide-open shots.
“So that was kind of biggest thing and that’s what I was frustrated about personally, just me struggling and when [Thomas] is having big games and [I’m] not helping him because I just know it’d be tough if we’re scoring on offense pretty well and efficient, we’d be tough to beat.”
That hasn’t happened yet, at least not the way the Nets envision.
They’ve only had a single game when both topped 25, that coming in a close four-point Nov. 6 loss against powerhouse Milwaukee.
But the pair haven’t been at their most efficient together.
Brooklyn is just 3-5 when they’ve both cracked 20 points. And in 466 minutes on-court together spread over 20 games, the Bridges/Thomas duo is a minus-69.
Their minus-8.2 Net Rating is the worst of any Brooklyn pairing that has logged at least 450 minutes.
The pair both thrive in the midrange, but have now started to focus on getting to the basket more.
“With Mikal and Cam Thomas being big drivers of the ball for us, they’re just being very intentional on getting to the rim,” Dinwiddie said. “It’s helped out a lot.”
Lonnie Walker IV (hamstring) and Ben Simmons (nerve impingement, lower back) are both out Tuesday.
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