Victor Wembanyama misses a jumper in the final seconds as the Knicks hold on to take a 2-0 series lead in The Finals.
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SAN ANTONIO — Among the many questions swirling around the New York Knicks at the moment – from the nervous (“Can they really close out these Finals?”) to the cocky (“Where and when’s the parade?”) – there’s one that’s sure to ignite a heated debate: “Would the Knicks trade Mikal Bridges right now for five first-round picks?”
OK, that’s more of a playful one, a turnabout on the second-guessing that has lingered since July 2024, when New York gave up five first-round draft picks to acquire Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets. It was a king’s ransom, especially by 2026 standards when NBA asking prices for young stars has decreased.
The price paid made it impossible, in the minds of some, for Bridges ever to play up to the expectations the Knicks might have had for him. He’s never been an All-Star, he’s neither the first nor second scoring option on a good team and he often has failed to impress at the most crucial times.
Until Friday. In Game 2 of the 2026 Finals at Frost Bank Center, Bridges put together one of his most thorough and clutch performances ever. He scored 20 points, nine in the third quarter when New York seized temporary control of the game.
Bridges logged a game-high 40:53, chipped in six rebounds and six assists, hit eight of his 13 shots (including 4-for-6 3-pointers). And he did it all against the backdrop of a sputtering Jalen Brunson and foul-plagued Karl-Anthony Towns.
Jalen Brunson (20 points), Mikal Bridges (20 points) and Karl-Anthony Towns (21 points, 13 rebounds) combine for 61 in Game 2 win.
Those two Knicks stars needed some bailing out if their team was going to go up 2-0 on the San Antonio Spurs as the series shifts to New York. And there was Bridges – along with Landry Shamet, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson but most of all Bridges – bucket in hand.
“Mikal during a stretch of the ballgame was huge for us on both ends of the floor,” coach Mike Brown said. “You’re not stopping a guy like De’Aaron Fox. You’ve just got to try to make him work. We put Mikal on Fox in the second half a little bit and made him work.
“But what he did for us offensively when we were struggling, and then when we took Jalen out was huge. He made big play after big play after big play.”
With 3:19 left in the third quarter, the Knicks were vulnerable and their floor general was off his game. After making only three of 11 shots in the first half, Brunson went 1-for-5 after halftime before Brown sat him at that timeout. Towns already was on the bench after picking up his fourth foul. The Knicks’ lead once had been 11 points but had dwindled to 76-72.
That’s when Bridges found himself on the floor with four reserves – Shamet, Robinson, Miles McBride and Jose Alvarado – and the ball mostly in his hands. He hit a couple shots, found Robinson on an alley-oop, grabbed a key defensive rebound and pushed his team’s lead back to nine points, 84-75, by the end of the period.
Things got worse before they got better, but Bridges’ calm hand in the third and contributions throughout the night kept the Knicks in position to seize the series two games in.
“Yeah, I think [it] started just defensively getting stops,” Bridges said. “I think that’s the biggest thing, us getting stops and getting out. Just [Brown] giving me confidence to try to make the right play. … I trust everybody out there on that court.”
Mikal Bridges and Mitchell Robinson speak with the media following Friday's 105-104 Game 2 victory over the Spurs.
Said teammate Josh Hart, another foul-hampered Knick whom Bridges helped get off the hook: “You can’t say enough about him. I’m not surprised about it. I don’t think anyone else is surprised or should be surprised. That’s what he does. He’s a winning basketball player. He makes big-time shots, big-time stops.”
Bridges became the first Knicks player to put up at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in a Finals game since (wait for it) Walt Frazier.
That’s the kind of dry spell, 53 years since New York’s last championship in 1973, that prompted the front office to grab Bridges when they could two summers ago, no matter the price. His play the past two seasons has dragged along a nagging referendum, a series of assessments as his performances rose and fell.
Worth it. Not worth it. Worth it. Not worth it.
And then Friday, with his timely production and the circumstances in which Bridges came up so big, most definitely worth it.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
