Ben Simmons is the only player on the Nets’ roster to have made an All-Star Game.
Mikal Bridges could be on the verge of changing that.
After becoming the centerpiece of the Kevin Durant trade and new face of the franchise in February, Bridges is continuing his breakthrough in Brooklyn.
Bridges is posting career highs in points (23.2), rebounds (6.0) and assists (4.0). If the 27-year-old keeps this up — and the 12-9 Nets continue improving — when February rolls around again, he could find himself adding another honorific.
“Mikal is playing his way into an All-Star-type of conversation if we can be fortunate enough to keep winning,” Spencer Dinwiddie said.
Since a slow-ish start to the season coming back from Team USA duty at the FIBA World Cup, Bridges has started playing at a star level.
Following his two lowest scoring outputs of the season — 10 points on Nov. 8 against the Clippers and 12 two nights later against the Celtics — Bridges has been on fire, even counting his 21-point showing in Friday night’s win over the Wizards in which he rested for the fourth quarter.
He has averaged 26.0 points on 51.1 percent shooting with 6.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists in those 12 games — joining all-world stars Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant as the only players to put up at least 25/6/4 on better than 50 percent shooting in the span since Nov. 12.
Bridges has boosted his season 3-point percentage to 37.8 after making just 26.9 percent in his first 10 games.
Yes, Bridges’ scoring — suppressed in Phoenix by the presences of Devin Booker and Chris Paul — flashed after last season’s arrival, albeit at the cost of his usual defensive prowess.
But now he’s not just scoring. He’s proving that he can lead a winner. His burgeoning assurance, especially in late-game situations, has gone to another level.
“I think my coaches and teammates, they just give me that confidence to go out there and be that guy to make those shots, make those plays,” Bridges said. “Credit to them: When you have that feeling of everybody around you [being] confident in you, you get that extra confidence in yourself. So now I just appreciate [that] I’ve got them on my side, and it gets me going.”
Clinical in the clutch
Bridges is tied with Trae Young for third in the NBA in “clutch” points with 61, behind only Steph Curry’s 73 and Damian Lillard’s 69.
Bridges is shooting a scalding 55.3 percent in those clutch moments, defined as the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime when the score is within five points.
Bridges mustered just 44 clutch points all of last season on 36.8 percent shooting — and just 11 points on 2-of-9 shooting from the floor as a Net.
He found out that scoring while being game-planned against is far more difficult, a lesson that young Cam Thomas is learning now.
Bridges had to go through that grinder a season ago, and the Nets are reaping the benefits now.
“You have to be in those situations. You can’t watch it on film. You can’t simulate it in practice. When you’re in those situations, there’s a feeling to it. There’s a moment to it. There is a dedication to it. There is a responsibility to it,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. “He’s really been answering the challenge, and we’ll continue to put him in those situations. He just continues to grow from them.”
The member of the Nets who has seen more of that growth than any other unquestionably is Cam Johnson.
He and Bridges arrived in Phoenix together, becoming such fast friends that they were dubbed “The Twins,” and they came to the Nets together in the Durant deal. Though Bridges always has had faith in his talent, Johnson has watched him grow into his role as a top scorer and late-game closer.
“It’s a process, and it builds — and he keeps a positive mindset about it,” Johnson said. “And the more all of us are able to see and build and judge and make adjustments — see what might have went wrong, what might have went right — we’re able to add that into our mental playbook. And so all of ours are, but you can see his developing.”
Bridges has a synergy with Johnson built up over the years with the Suns, but he’s had to learn his Nets teammates and Vaughn’s system.
When he arrived midseason, the Nets just ran the same actions for Bridges that they had for Durant. But now, having gone through a full training camp, he’s more comfortable.
And it’s showing.
“That’s why it’s always tough when teams get put together really fast, because you’ve got to have that togetherness,” Bridges said. “You’ve got to know each other. And that’s what it was last year. [It] was tough because we just all got traded from different teams and different schemes, and we weren’t together that long. You’ve got to learn through games, which is tough. If I have an offseason, coming out of a preseason and having these days throughout, we just keep building every day.”
Brave in Atlanta
The decisive endgame moments in Wednesday night’s seesaw win in Atlanta showed that confidence and that cohesion.
At State Farm Arena — where Bridges had been winless in his career — he poured in a game-high 32 points, six assists and five rebounds.
The Nets’ spacing had been askew on their pick-and-rolls early on, and Bridges was getting closed down at the basket. But they adjusted, and he had 23 in the second half, including 10 in the fourth quarter on 5-of-6 shooting.
“The confidence [is the difference],” Vaughn said. “We called a middle pick-and-roll for him, he got by his defender and he got blocked at the rim. Alright, so then we changed our formation, and the next two times we had a different person in pick-and-roll and he was able to score.
“So really not panicking, diagnosing the situation, making some adjustments from it, and then being OK with the results. I think it takes special individuals to be OK with the results.”
The results were Bridges hitting a go-ahead layup off a feed from Spencer Dinwiddie with 32.8 seconds left. And after Young’s 3-pointer put the Hawks back on top, Vaughn eschewed the timeout and let the Nets play.
Bridges seized the moment, attacking before the Hawks defense could get set. He got to his midrange and hit an 18-footer with 5.1 seconds left to win it.
You want to be in the moment, you know? You want to be in those late game moments, and take a lot of pride in it,” Bridges said. “You play basketball, growing up playing basketball, you want to be in those situations where it comes down to the last possessions, getting a stop and scoring. So everybody’s just locked in and wants to win, and that’s all I care about.”
Despite shouldering a heavier offensive burden, Bridges has gotten back to his stout defensive self. After leading the league in miles run the prior two years, he ranks fifth this season (54.3).
And while Vaughn has embraced the NBA’s trend toward positionless basketball, Bridges — with his switchability and 7-foot wingspan — is the prototype of the modern wing.
“He plays both ends of the court, which is one of the things that makes him special,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “He’s able to attack, he shoots the 3. … He obviously went to the basket. [With] his length and size, he’s able to shoot over you at times. You can have a good defensive possession, and he’s capable of rising up and making a shot. And then in transition, he’s off in transition. So there’s a lot of things that he’s doing on the floor that he could be effective offensively. And then obviously he’s a unique defensive player, too.”
Read more
