All the Knicks wanted for Christmas was a five-game winning streak. At Madison Square Garden, Santa Claus wore No. 25.
Mikal Bridges delivered his finest performance as a Knick, exploding for 41 points on 17-of-25 shooting to propel New York to a thrilling 117-114 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday.
His clutch effort erased an eight-point deficit in the final seven minutes, fending off an all-time display from reigning Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama, who dominated with 42 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 blocks.
The two became the first opposing players to score 40 points each in a Christmas Day game since 1961, and the effort fell four points shy of Bridges’ career-high 45 points set last season with the Nets in a Feb. 15 matchup against the Miami Heat.
“It’s great, man. It feels good. Feels good to win. That’s the biggest thing,” Bridges said at his locker after the game. “All those shots and trying to make shots is about winning the game. That’s pretty much it. It’s cool. I know my family’s geeked up. I know they’re gonna be more geeked up than me.”
Bridges’ heroics punctuated a breakout December in which he has averaged 22.7 points on nearly 60 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc. It’s a dramatic turnaround for the star forward, who was acquired in a blockbuster trade involving five first-round picks and initially struggled to find his rhythm with the Knicks.
“They say slow and steady wins the race, and that’s what he’s been,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “If you look at his whole career, he just keeps getting better and better and better. What is he? It’s hard to put him in a box because he does everything. He can run the floor in transition. He moves extremely well without the ball. He knows how to create advantages. You can put him in pick-and-roll. He’s smart. There’s so many intangibles that he brings to the team. It’s creating big advantages for us.”
“It was special,” added Karl-Anthony Towns. “He picked a hell of a day to do it.”
Bridges scored 15 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter, playing all 12 minutes to help the Knicks rally for their 15th win in 19 games. His resurgence has been evident since a 31-point breakout performance against New Orleans on Dec. 1. Before that game, Bridges was averaging just 15.5 points while shooting 30.6 percent from three.
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Josh Hart, one of the Bridges’ most outspoken proponents, said the forward’s success was inevitable.
“That’s my brother. That’s my brother. I know what he can do. I know his mindset,” Hart said on Wednesday. “People gotta realize not one player in this league has a great game for all 82 games. There’s peaks and valleys in this league. There’s going to be high points, there’s going to be low points — that’s why you always try to stay even-keeled. He’s a guy that did that. He put the work in. When you see someone put the work in, you know what he’s capable of. You know the character that he has.
“We knew that, we knew it was just a matter of time before he kind of found it. Now he found it and y’all not saying nothing. Get some damn apology forms out. I’ll be collecting them next game and give him his flowers because he’s playing well. Let the flowers be as loud as the hate.”
Hart was a key contributor in the win, finishing with 12 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists. Towns chipped in 21 points and nine rebounds, ending his streak of 18 consecutive double-doubles. Jalen Brunson, despite shooting 7-of-23 from the field, added 20 points, 9 assists, and 7 rebounds.
The beauty of the new-look Knicks is that they no longer need Brunson to carry the scoring load every night. The team’s depth has allowed multiple players to step up when needed.
OG Anunoby has a 40-point game this season, Towns has posted a 46-point outing, and now Bridges joins the elite club of Knicks to score 40 or more at Madison Square Garden on Christmas Day — a feat previously achieved only by Bernard King and Richie Guerin.
“It shows the depth of the team. Obviously ‘Kal had an amazing game, and that’s why we went and got him. OG had huge plays offensively and more importantly, defensively for us. And Deuce [Miles McBride] gave us good minutes. [So did] Cam,” said Hart. “Now we’re in the position where we don’t need JB to go out there and score 30 for us to win, for us to be in the game. And I think that’s the benefit.
“When he goes out there, more times than not, he’ll give us 25 very efficiently, at least. When that happens, all good. But when we’re able to scratch out wins when he’s not shooting the ball well, it shows the depth of this team. For him, he doesn’t care. His main agenda is to win and he’s happy with that.”
