BOSTON — Mikal Bridges' carryover shooting woes were so painful to watch during a scoreless first half that some Knicks fans felt like he was probably going to be shut out Tuesday night. Sho.
Bridges even made a technical free throw early in the third quarter, but he scored 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting after the break in his team debut in a 132-109 loss to the Celtics. However, in the end, they overcame the turbulent start and finished the race.
However, his defense never fully recovered.
Bridges was also the Knicks' primary defender against Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum, who sank 8 of 11 3-pointers and tied Boston's NBA record with 29 treys for 37 points. Recorded.
“I definitely could have done better. I don't think I performed as well on the defensive end. [good] For me personally and for the team,” said Bridges, who scored a team-worst minus-33 points in 35 minutes. “Personally, I think we could have done better, especially [against] The guy just gets it, has the rhythm of the three, and stands up a little more [on Tatum].
“He made some great moves against me in the paint as well. I've got to get better. So Game 1, just learning from that and improving from there.”
Bridges, acquired from the Nets in a blockbuster trade in the summer, missed his first five shots of the season, including four 3-pointers, in the first 13 minutes of the game, before being replaced by rookie Pacome Dadiette. Early second quarter.
Bridges, 28, who has a career 3-point shooting percentage of 37.5 percent, discussed fixing his shooting issues last week after missing 17 of 19 long-range shots in four preseason appearances. was.
“Mikal doesn't care about anything else, we don't care about the noise around him, his shots and everything else.” [stuff]. We don’t care about that,” Josh Hart said of his former Villanova teammate. “He works every day. He’s going to get better.
“The discussion about it is stupid, and after all he was an almost 40 percent 3-point shooter, so there's stupidity. The talk about it is stupid, and we're not really going to enjoy it.
Bridges finally made a 3-pointer with 9:21 left in the third.
Karl-Anthony Towns then found him on a cut to the basket for a layup, and he sank a baseline jumper for three straight makes, missing just one of his last eight.
“Yeah, my teammates keep finding me and just making it.” [shot]. I think that’s pretty much it,” Bridges said. “Just making it was like opening the lid.”
