Knicks’ Mikal Bridges benched almost entire fourth quarter due to poor shooting
NY Post
SALT LAKE CITY — Mikal Bridges understood why he did not return to Saturday’s game.
The imported Knicks starter endured his roughest shooting game of the season, and he didn’t play over the final 10:03 of a 121-106 loss to the Jazz.
Bridges scored a season-low seven points on 3-for-15 shooting, including six misses in seven tries from 3, in 33 minutes. He sat in favor of veteran guard Cam Payne down the stretch.
“For sure, our biggest thing, obviously I was struggling, but our biggest thing is to win,” Bridges said after the game. “Cam came in and he was playing well. He was part of that team that was making that run.“I was more just frustrated that I couldn’t be out there to help the team and frustrated that the first three quarters I was out there I couldn’t really do much. But yeah, I understand it. We’re trying to win a game, and that’s all I care about, so I think that was the right decision.”
Tom Thibodeau said that he stuck with Payne — who scored 11 points with five assists in 31 minutes off the bench — because he was bringing needed energy, especially during a 17-0 run that brought the Knicks within two late in the third quarter.
“I was just looking for anything that could get us going,” Thibodeau said. “And it wasn’t just Mikal. Cam I thought came in and he gave us a big spark. I almost went back to Jericho [Sims] at the end because I thought his minutes were good for us, as well. When you get down like we did, you’re just searching for anything to get you going. That’s really what we were doing.”
One man is already seemingly trying to get his foot in the door to become the next head coach of the Jets.
PHOENIX — You think of Tom Thibodeau, you think of defense.
It feels right that on the day we celebrate Aaron Judge joining an elite pantheon of athlete — the multi-time winner of the Most Valuable Player award — that we take a walk back to the beginning, when Judge was little more than a 6-foot-7, 280-pound curiosity who mostly specialized in striking out.
The NFL has warned its players to take precautions against a “transnational crime ring” that is suspected of orchestrating a number of break-ins of athletes’ homes including Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
Joel Embiid isn’t pleased with details of the 76ers’ team meeting after Monday’s loss being leaked, telling reporters after Wednesday’s road loss to the Grizzlies, “whoever leaked that is a real piece of s–t.”
PHOENIX — Jalen Brunson didn’t want to comment on the NBA looking into his father’s promotion and contract as a potential salary-cap circumvention, but the point guard certainly had a message to anybody questioning Rick Brunson’s coaching credentials.
PHOENIX — Wednesday brought some cautiously optimistic updates for the Knicks frontcourt.
The Greatest Escape in franchise history was perpetrated by Glen Sather, when the general manager extricated himself and the Rangers from the final five years of Scott Gomez’s contract by moving the $7,357,143-per-year center to Montreal on June 30, 2009 after two years in New York.
The Yankees publicly are on the same page: Hal Steinbrenner, like Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone before him, said that issues with the club’s fundamentals did not hover over the team all season.
The first day of the rest of Daniel Jones’ dwindling time with the Giants arrived Wednesday, with Jones in the building, in the meetings, on the practice field (although not doing very much) and not at all part of the game plan for the next game, relegated to a non-participant role for the remainder of the season.