Mikal Bridges might be from Philadelphia, but the New York Knicks' wing in the midst of a rollercoaster of a season should be rooting for the Boston Celtics to take down the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of their first-round matchup.
The math is simple. Bridges had both of his season-defining highlights, and his best quarter of the year, in the second round of the playoffs against the Celtics last year. And this year, he was benched down the stretch of a close game in his hometown of Philadelphia.
The wing seems to have a better chance of contributing in a big way against Boston than he would in against Philly, making it easy for him to pick who he'd rather his Knicks face now that they've officially cleared the hurdle the Atlanta Hawks presented in Round 1.
Bridges has been better for the Knicks against the Celtics than 76ers
While Bridges' counting stats may have looked better against the Sixers throughout the season, the Knicks won his minutes in just two of their four games and lost them in the others – by double digits each time. On the other hand, New York won Bridges' minutes in all four games against the Celtics this season.
When the Knicks made their pair of 20-point comebacks to open their Eastern Conference Semi-Finals series against the Celtics last year, it was Bridges who sealed each win with a clutch defensive stop. And his mid-range scoring helped him log all 14 of his points in Game 2 to help New York finalize their pair of unexpected wins.
Bridges' woes worsened despite scheme that was supposed to fix them
This season, Bridges has had a much tougher go of it. Head coach Mike Brown talked early and often about his affinity for the wing's play on both ends of the court. But the coach hasn't been afraid to bench the wing down the stretch of, or even throughout, big games.
Bridges will seemingly always bring it defensively, but when he doesn't have it offensively, the play of reserves like Miles McBride has become increasingly harder for Brown to ignore.
If the Knicks do draw the Celtics as their second-round matchup, the hope for the organization and its fans will obviously be that they won't need to fall behind by 20 points, twice, to show their best stuff.
But their performance against the Hawks just proved, once again, that that's exactly who this Knicks team has been through two seasons.
Regardless of which team they get matched up against, Bridges will need to be a big part of New York's efforts if they want to win. While they can survive benching him late in a game or two, they ultimately need his defensive length and versatility on boths ides of the court to have the kind of scheme versatility opposing head coaches fear.
Add us as a preferred source on Google