NEW YORK — The Knicks lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday night, 115–107, but the real mystery at Madison Square Garden wasn't how New York managed to lose an eight-point game. It was how a man named Mikal Bridges managed to participate in a professional basketball contest without leaving any appreciable evidence that he had been there.
Bridges scored two points.
Two.
He played 17 minutes, collected one rebound, distributed two assists and committed two turnovers. He attempted three shots, making one. He didn't attempt a three-pointer or a free throw.
At least the Garden ushers have to stand for four quarters.
James Harden, meanwhile, arrived with his beard, his basketball and apparently every point Bridges had intended to score this month. Harden poured in 32, hitting five three-pointers and reminding New York that even an aging gunfighter can still shoot the piano player when the saloon gets crowded.
Donovan Mitchell supplied 23 more. Together they gave Cleveland 55 points, which was 53 more than Bridges managed all by himself.
There was a time when the Knicks thought Bridges was the missing piece. Wednesday night he looked more like the missing person.
And the problem with missing persons in New York is that somebody eventually files a report.
New York didn't exactly surrender without a fight.
Jalen Brunson scored 27. Karl-Anthony Towns contributed 21 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. Miles McBride came off the bench to score 19, providing the sort of assistance Bridges apparently considers somebody else's responsibility.
The Knicks even managed to climb out of a 10-point fourth-quarter hole, tying the game at 101. The crowd was roaring. The building was shaking. Cleveland appeared ready to fold its tent and head for Ohio.
Then Harden hit a three-pointer with 4:22 remaining, and the Knicks' comeback collapsed like a cheap lawn chair.
Cleveland finished the job. New York finished with its fifth loss of the season.
But the larger concern is Bridges.
The Knicks surrendered five first-round draft picks to acquire him and subsequently signed him to a four-year, $150 million extension. That's an extraordinary investment in a basketball player. For that money, you'd expect somebody who occasionally takes possession of the basketball with the intention of putting it through the hoop.
Bridges entered Wednesday averaging just 6.3 points and shooting 32.9 percent from the field this season. This isn't a slump anymore. It's beginning to resemble a change of occupation.
Coach Mike Brown didn't play him in the fourth quarter. That may have been the most productive decision involving Bridges all evening.
Brown says he isn't interested in making a panic decision about his starting lineup.
Panic? No. Panic is what happens when the building catches fire.
What Brown has is an expensive piece of basketball equipment that seems to have lost its instruction manual.
The cruel irony is that Bridges helped the Knicks win a championship last season. He has demonstrated that he can play basketball at the highest level. Nobody is asking him to discover a new talent. They're simply asking him to remember the one that made him wealthy.
The Knicks have enough problems without having to play four against five. Brunson cannot be expected to carry the offense every night. Towns cannot be asked to provide the scoring, rebounding and passing while somebody else concentrates on being well dressed for the postgame interviews.
New York basketball fans understand missed shots. They've endured enough of them to qualify as experts in the field. They will forgive an off night, a bad shooting streak, even an occasional disappearance.
But they won't forgive a player who looks as though he has misplaced both his confidence and his competitive appetite.
Mikal Bridges doesn't need another endorsement, another contract or another explanation.
He needs a basketball.
And preferably, some inclination to use it.
Because at the moment, the most dependable thing about his offensive game is that the direct deposit still arrives on time.
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