LOS ANGELES — Like a few of his teammates, Mikal Bridges was saddled with foul trouble Sunday.
And he never recovered.
The guard went scoreless for the first time this season in an ugly 110-97 loss to the Lakers, missing all six of his attempts — including four from behind the arc.
It was the third time Bridges failed to score since joining the Knicks before last season, although one occurred as he logged just a few seconds in a meaningless finale to maintain his consecutive games played streak.
On Sunday, Bridges started by fouling Los Angeles’ Austin Reaves on a 3-point attempt just 15 seconds after tipoff. It set the tone. Bridges picked up his fourth foul about 1 ½ minutes into the second half and was benched for the remainder of the third quarter.
“Just not being out there. I think that’s the biggest thing. Being in foul trouble takes me away from being out there to try to help my team win,” Bridges said. “I’ve got to be better, starting off the game fouling a shooter from 3.”
Knicks coach Mike Brown blasted his team for lazy defending, saying it was the driver of the foul problems. The Lakers took 30 free throws compared to New York’s 21.
“We got beat off the dribble often,” Brown said. “We got beat to the middle. And being lazy about it we reached at the last second and sent them to the free-throw line.”
Luka Doncic, who finished with 35 points, attempted a game-high 10 free throws for the Lakers. Reaves took seven.
“When we guarded the ball, we tried to make up for it with a crazy reach,” Brown said. “Thirty free-throw attempts is crazy.”
Josh Hart was also foul-happy with four personals in just 22 minutes. He was benched for the entire fourth quarter, which was more about the coach rolling with Jordan Clarkson.
“Yeah, it’s tough. Especially some of the fouls that they called they cause you — your physicality is not there and it’s tough, you’re not able to play the way you want to play,” Hart said. “You get taken out and you don’t have the flow of the game. Obviously that’s a frustrating thing. You’ve got to figure out and not put them on the free-throw line. It’s tough.”
But nobody had a tougher afternoon than Bridges, who was looking forward to redemption Monday against the Clippers.
“Just bouncing back. We have an opportunity to show that tomorrow off a back-to-back,” Bridges said. “Not playing as we wanted to, we get another chance to bounce back. It’s a game of life. You know what I’m saying? You’re hit and you’ve just got to get back up. So what are you going to do? We’ve got another opportunity tomorrow.”
