Knicks extend winning streak to 8 as Mikal Bridges turns in miserable game vs. Nuggets in double OT

With just over two minutes left in the fourth quarter of a one-possession ball game against the Denver Nuggets at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, Jalen Brunson spliced into the paint, forced the defense to collapse on the drive, then hit the open man — Mikal Bridges — wide open for a shot that would have put the Knicks up by five.

Bridges missed the open shot. He missed another desperation, late-clock attempt nearly two minutes later as the Nuggets rallied to force overtime.

And as it looked like the Knicks finally won the game in OT, officials called a loose-ball foul on Bridges with 0.3 seconds remaining, which sent Denver’s Christian Braun to the line for free throws.

Then Bridges made a critical three to put the Knicks up seven in double-overtime, where the Knicks pulled away to extend their winning streak to eight games with a 134-127 double-overtime victory on Wednesday night.

Brunson scored a game-high 42 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in the win while Karl-Anthony Towns contributed 24 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out in OT.

The sequences were a microcosm of Bridges’ inconsistent play leading into the Feb. 5 NBA Trade Deadline. His struggles have been hard to ignore, and even more difficult to digest, given the steep price of acquiring him in the deal with the Brooklyn Nets.

The Knicks survived an ice-cold Bridges scoring night despite two key rotation players (Josh Hart and Miles McBride) out nursing ankle injuries. Their struggles on Wednesday night were not solely attributed to their versatile two-way wing, though he drew the lion’s share of the Jamal Murray matchup, and Murray torched the Knicks (read: Bridges) for 39 points on 15-of-33 shooting from the field.

But a system that was expected to benefit New York’s versatile, two-way wing has yielded wildly inconsistent results as the Knicks cruised into Trade Deadline Eve expecting minor moves to bolster a roster expected to compete for a championship — only to be reminded there’s no small trade capable of compensating for no-show performances from a franchise cornerstone.

Bridges finished with just five points on two-of-eight shooting from the field and missed his first five attempts from downtown. The five-point performance marked his 24th and 25th halves with fewer than five points scored this season and his fifth game with fewer than 10 points of the year.

It’s not the kind of production New York expected when the front office traded five first-round picks to the Brooklyn Nets for Brunson and Hart’s college teammate two summers ago. And it’s a microcosm of the roller-coaster ride of a year it’s been for Bridges, whose recent box scores read like a lottery ticket: 23 (points against the lowly Washington Wizards), 10 (points in consecutive games against the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers), 30 points vs. the Toronto Raptors, 18, nine, 11, seven.

And then, of course, five points in 49 minutes against the Nuggets on Wednesday.

Luckily for Bridges, the Knicks didn’t acquire him to be the main draw. Brunson and Towns shouldered the scoring load, and Mitchell Robinson starred on the defensive end, turning Nikola Jokic into primarily a perimeter player in his minutes matched up against the three-time MVP. Jokic finished with a 30-point triple-double and did not turn the ball over on Wednesday but shot 10-of-27 from the field, struggling to generate quality offense with Robinson as his defensive matchup.

“It felt like a playoff game. We came out here with the right energy and mindset and got the job done,” the rim-protecting big man said after the game. Robinson, after Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. trade with the Utah Jazz, is one of only two members of the 2018 NBA Draft who hasn’t been traded from the team who selected him, the other being Charlotte’s Miles Bridges. “Trying to get the job done. He’s a great player, we all know that, and I’m just gonna try my best.”

Mike Brown started Jordan Clarkson in place of the injured Hart, and Clarkson finished with 11 points on five-of-seven shooting from the field. In the second leg of a back-to-back, and Landry Shamet hit four 3s off the bench for 16 points on the night.

The Knicks have a chance to make it nine in a row with a matchup against the East’s No. 1-seeded Detroit Pistons on Friday, but they’ll need more than five points from the player that cost five picks if they’re going to have a shot.