The Knicks are up 2-0 in the NBA Finals. Mikal Bridges wants you to know that means nothing.
Heading into Game 3 at Madison Square Garden against the San Antonio Spurs, Bridges issued the kind of word of caution that you only hear from teams that have been close to a title before and learned the hard way how fragile a lead can be.
“We can’t get comfortable,” Bridges said. “Nothing about this series is over.”
He is right. And the Spurs proved it.
San Antonio took Game 3 by a score of 115-111 at MSG on Monday night, slicing the Knicks’ lead to 2-1 in front of a sold-out crowd that included President Donald Trump, the first sitting president to ever attend an NBA Finals game. Victor Wembanyama answered the Knicks’ physicality, and the Spurs found a way to steal a road win in the most hostile arena in basketball.
The Knicks were already vulnerable to overconfidence.
Game 1 was a 105-95 win. Game 2 was a 105-104 nail-biter. Both came with Karl-Anthony Towns going for 21 and 13 and Bridges shooting 8-for-13 from the floor. New York looked like the better team, but never by much. The margin for error in a Finals is always thinner than the casual fan thinks.
That is exactly why Bridges sounded the alarm before Game 3 even started.
The Spurs have Wembanyama, a generational talent who is too good to stay quiet for three straight games. They have veterans who have been here before. And they had nothing to lose in Game 3, which is the most dangerous thing a Finals team can have.
Bridges has been the steadiest Knicks player this postseason, even with all the focus on Brunson and Towns. His message wasn’t about doubt. It was about respect. You don’t beat the Spurs by assuming the previous two games tell you anything about the next one.
Now the Knicks have to do the hard thing. Down a game and a half of momentum, with the home crowd no longer making them comfortable, can they regroup and take Game 4? That is the question.
Bridges saw this coming. The rest of the Knicks need to listen.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
