SALT LAKE CITY — Mikal Bridges understood why he didn’t return to Saturday’s recreation.
The imported Knicks starter endured his roughest taking pictures recreation of the season, and he didn’t play over the ultimate 10:03 of a 121-106 loss to the Jazz.
Bridges scored a season-low seven factors on 3-for-15 taking pictures, together with 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 mentioned after the sport. “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 mentioned that he caught with Payne — who scored 11 factors with 5 assists in 31 minutes off the bench — as a result of he was bringing wanted vitality, particularly throughout a 17-0 run that introduced the Knicks inside two late within the third quarter.
“I was just looking for anything that could get us going,” Thibodeau mentioned. “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.”
Bridges, who was obtained from the Nets over the summer season, entered Saturday’s recreation main the NBA in taking part in time with 38.6 minutes per recreation.
His earlier lowest scoring output was an eight-point effort in opposition to the Pacers on Nov. 10.
