INDIANAPOLIS — Mikal Bridges repeated it eight times in a three-minute interview Friday: “Be better.”
The floundering shooting guard took ownership of his struggles before a rejuvenating performance in Friday’s 106-104 loss to the Pacers, saying he’s the lone problem and solution.
“I just look in the mirror, I just got to be better,” said Bridges, who scored a season-high 18 points on 9-of-12 shooting Friday. “Nobody else to blame but me, and I just got to go out there and, whatever it is, just be better and go harder.”
Bridges was light on specifics, but his shooting numbers were ugly. Before Friday, he was at 32.9 percent from the field overall and 26.5 percent on 3-pointers — despite many of his looks being wide open.
Head coach Mike Brown responded by benching Bridges for long stretches, preferring to close games with reserve Landry Shamet.
“When times are tough, you just gotta own up to it and just be better,” Bridges said.
After Bridges played just 17 minutes in Wednesday’s loss to the Cavaliers — the fourth time in 11 games that he’s logged 17 or fewer — Brown said it’d be “hard to find minutes” for Bridges and “even for times for Josh Hart.”
Brown reasoned that reserves Shamet and Deuce McBride are playing well.
But the Knicks also have $150 million tied up in Bridges, who said he’s not relying on flipping a switch to excellence in the playoffs like the past two seasons.
“I try to be my best throughout the whole year. Obviously, struggles come, which obviously nobody wants, but like I said, in these moments, gotta look in the mirror, and you’re tested the most and just see what you’re made of,” Bridges said. “So, just gotta be better.”
Bridges had a different tune last season during a slump, when he blamed a lack of opportunity for his performance decline.
“Sometimes you try to get open, and sometimes it doesn’t find me. Just try to find ways to stay aggressive,” Bridges said in March, a little more than a month before he started a dominant playoff run. “That’s it.”
This time, Bridges was self-scrutinizing.
“I got to do everything better,” he said.
Brown said he hasn’t thought about removing Bridges from the starting lineup because he’s a proven vet and it’d be a “panic decision” so early in the season. But there’s a minutes crunch at the wing with Bridges, Hart, Shamet and McBride.
On Friday, Bridges played well, and Hart (zero points, 0-for-4 shooting) was benched.
“There are several different ways you can look at it,” Hart said. “You can look at it, if [Shamet and McBride] have it going, cool. Good. You could you look at it like, ‘OK, maybe something else has to change [like a trade].’
“But there’s going to good days with that, bad days.”
Free-throw discrepancy was a storyline in the first half. The Knicks took just five free throws in the opening two quarters; the Pacers quadrupled that amount with 20. Over the entire game, the Pacers shot 25 free throws to the Knicks’ 13.
Frustrations boiled over late in the second quarter when Brown berated a referee over a non-call. Brown was irate and picked up a technical foul. The Knicks trailed at the break, 58-49.
“I did get a tech. But the reality was the Pacers were playing harder than us. It was out of frustration,” Brown said. “Some of it because … we have a guy like Jalen who is an All-Star and an MVP candidate, and he takes zero free throws in the first half. … That, in itself, is frustrating to know that we’re getting beat that bad at the free-throw line and they’re missing some calls. Are we fouling them? Yes. And we have to do a better job earlier. But in the same breath, the discrepancy shouldn’t be that bad two games in a row.”
Brown also lamented the free-throw discrepancy in Wednesday’s loss to the Cavaliers.
