NEW YORK — Mikal Bridges was talked about a lot heading into this season as one of the players who could be an All-Star for the first time. His expectations based off his play from last season led many to believe that Bridges would just get better with more reps as the primary scorer for the Brooklyn Nets. He’s recently overcome a shooting slump that made some wonder if he was experiencing fatigue.
“That’s the frustrating thing,” Bridges said after Saturday’s 126-115 win over the Detroit Pistons in which he put up 29 points and seven assists for his 14th 20-point game this season through 29 games. In a five-game span from Dec. 13 to Dec.20, Bridges averaged just 15.2 points per game, he’s averaging 21.7 points per game overall this season, while shooting just 29.6% from the field and 34.3% from deep. What made that slump was that Bridges’ shot profile did not change.
“I was getting to everything I wanted to get to these past games when I was struggling,” Bridges explained. “(Shots) just weren’t going in so that was always (the) toughest thing. I’m getting to what I like and just the ball wasn’t falling. So, just staying with it. I definitely was tripping. I’ve been in slumps before so (the) only way to get yourself out (of) one is to shoot out of it. So, just kept playing my game and being aggressive.”
With the emergence of players like Cam Thomas and Lonnie Walker IV, Bridges has not been required to score as much as he did last season which is ultimately a good thing. Walker has missed the past few weeks with his hamstring injury so more of the scoring burden has been placed on Bridges and Thomas to some mixed results.
Bridges has proven on multiple occasions this season that he is still capable of high-scoring games for the Nets, but it seems that he is having more poor shooting outings than fans are used to. In the end, the hope is that Saturday’s win over the Pistons helped him turn a corner with his shooting efficiency.
[lawrence-related id=56582,56579,56576]