Against the Celtics, Tyrese Maxey was unstoppable.
He owned crunchtime of the winner-take-all Game 7.
That player has yet to show up to the Eastern Conference semifinals – in part due to Mikal Bridges’ lockdown defense.
Bridges was at it again Wednesday night, shutting down Maxey when Game 2 of this Eastern Conference semifinal series was hanging in the balance, limiting him to seven of his 26 points in the second half. And, Bridges also sank a big jumper late in the fourth quarter as the Knicks moved to within two wins of returning to the conference finals with a 108-102 victory at the Garden.
Against the Celtics, Maxey averaged 30 points. Through two games against the Knicks, that number is down to 19.5, on 37.5 percent shooting from the field. The young star guard has also committed 10 turnovers, six coming on Wednesday.
“Honestly, it started with Mikal. He’s just been great for us at the point of attack,” Miles McBride said. “And the team has been locked in. He’s a tough player. And for Mikal, he’s just going to keep going at him. He’s going to step up every time.”
Bridges has been a different player the last three games, after struggling for much of the first-round series against the Hawks. Coach Mike Brown considered bringing him off the bench, but stuck with the veteran wing. Bridges rewarded the coach.
He shined in the clincher and has built on it in this series. In Game 2, he had 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting, five rebounds and tenacious defense.
“You’re gonna have to keep working and give multiple efforts and the team defense behind him is gonna have to be great in order to even think you’re gonna slow [Maxey] down, because he’s a great player,” Brown said. “But Mikal did what he could, as well as everybody else behind him. And then on top of that, Mikal hit some big shots for us down the stretch, especially when we looked a little discombobulated offensively.
“He got to his spot and knocked down some big shots. So great game on both ends of the floor for Mikal.”
