Mikal Bridges scored 22 points on 11-of-15 shooting and the New York Knicks took a 3-0 series lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night, putting the franchise one win away from its first trip to the NBA Finals since 1999.
Bridges added six rebounds, three steals and two blocks in Game 3, a performance that underlined why the Knicks gave up five first-round picks and more to acquire him from the Brooklyn Nets two summers ago.
The specific numbers from Game 3 matter because they came amid a larger offensive realignment around Karl-Anthony Towns. After the Knicks fell behind 2-1 to the Atlanta Hawks earlier in the postseason, Towns asked coach Mike Brown to take on more playmaking responsibility; Brown granted the request, and Bridges has been one of the clear beneficiaries.
Over an eight-game stretch with Towns on the floor, Bridges is converting 85.7 percent of his looks inside the paint and at the rim, and nearly 66 percent of his field-goal attempts in that span have come from inside the paint or closer. Those shifts have lifted his efficiency and changed the team’s attack.
Without Towns on the court, the profile is different: Bridges is 10-of-11 at the hoop but just 2-of-7 on in-the-paint two-point attempts, and his rim frequency drops from 43.8 percent with Towns to 33.3 percent without him. In short, Towns’ playmaking has turned some of Bridges’ shots into higher-percentage chances at the rim.
Brown has praised Bridges’ instincts, saying the wing has a natural feel for where to be and when to attack. The coach has also noted Bridges’ selectivity—both in when he goes for steals and when he chooses to take shots—and told him and OG Anunoby they must impose their will because Brown does not run many set plays. Brown added that both players are doing a phenomenal job of doing exactly that and urged Bridges to keep it up.
That interplay—Bridges’ timing and Towns’ decision-making—creates the story’s tension. The Knicks spent heavily to acquire Bridges, and while the trade immediately raised expectations, the payoff has been uneven until this stretch. Now, with Bridges converting a high share of looks at the rim when Towns is on the floor, the team’s championship hopes hinge on whether that synergy holds through the rest of the series.
For the Knicks, the calculus coming out of Saturday is straightforward: win one of the next potential games and the franchise reaches the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, a result that would go a long way toward justifying the five first-round picks surrendered two summers ago. For Bridges, sustaining that rim rate and continuing to pick his spots defensively will determine whether this moment becomes the defining piece of a trade that rewrote New York’s short-term future.
The immediate question now is whether Cleveland can disrupt the Bridges–Towns connection enough to force a longer series; for New York, the next game will decide if a costly gamble has finally produced the result the front office demanded.
