Mikal Bridges Is Averaging 5.0 Points, and the Knicks Just Won a Game Without Him

The defining image of the New York Knicks' first week wasn't a Jalen Brunson floater or a Karl-Anthony Towns post move. It was Mikal Bridges sitting for all but three minutes of the second half in Chicago while a closing five of Brunson, Jordan Clarkson, Landry Shamet, OG Anunoby and Towns erased a 19-point deficit and outscored the Bulls 43-31 in the fourth quarter of a 133-127 win.

Mike Brown was blunt about it afterward. That's the story of the week in New York — not just that the defending champions started 0-3, but that the guy they've counted on for 82 games a year is the one whose minutes are suddenly negotiable.

The numbers are ugly in a specific way

Through five games Bridges is averaging 5.0 points on 10-of-37 shooting (27.0%) in 27.0 minutes, with 5-of-20 from three. The lowlight was a scoreless 22 minutes in Boston, where he went 0-of-8 and sat as the Knicks' comeback fell short, 107-103.

Compare that to last season, when he played all 82 games at 33.3 minutes, shot 48.8% from the floor and 36.9% from deep, and averaged 14.5 points. This isn't a slow start from a career-consistent shooter; it's a collapse in both accuracy and role.

Why it matters more than a normal slump

The 0-3 beginning was historic in the wrong way — New York became just the third defending champion in NBA history to lose its first three, and the first in 15 years. Two of those losses were close games in the final minutes (100-106 to Philadelphia, 103-107 in Boston), the exact territory where Bridges is supposed to be a stabilizer rather than a spectator.

And Brown is clearly still experimenting. He has cycled through 13 players already, benched Andre Drummond for effort (which Drummond did not take quietly), and is missing Jose Alvarado, who has sat three straight with a sprained ankle. A coach searching for combinations will keep finding ones that don't include a wing shooting 27%.

The good news hiding in the wreckage

The two wins came fast, and the second one came without Bridges. Towns has been enormous — 21.8 points and 13.8 rebounds per game, including a 27-point, 20-rebound night against Detroit that dragged New York to its first victory. He also shook off a first-quarter wrist scare in Chicago to finish with 19 and 13, an episode Brown laughed off afterward.

Brunson is producing volume — 25.8 points and 5.0 assists, capped by 38 points on 13-of-25 in Chicago — but the efficiency isn't there yet. He's at 43-of-107 (40.2%) from the field over five games, including a 5-of-18 night against the Pistons, and there's a reasonable read that he's still working back from offseason wrist surgery.

The team-level shooting reflects it: New York is at 40.4% from the floor and 29.9% from three, well below the standard this group set last season.

What to watch

The schedule doesn't offer breathing room. New York visits Philadelphia on Friday, and the 76ers are 4-1 and already beat the Knicks on banner night. After that comes Brooklyn at home, then Chicago at home, then a stretch of Cleveland, Milwaukee and Indiana.

The Knicks' season doesn't hinge on a five-game sample — they're 2-3 with a plus-0.2 point differential, and the two wins suggest the floor is higher than the start implied. But Bridges' role does hinge on this stretch. If the shooting doesn't come back, Brown has already shown he's willing to close games without him, and that's a much bigger story than a slow October.