Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges has been one of the main voices in the Nets’ locker room since he came to the team after the trade deadline. During that time, whether in wins or losses, Bridges has always communicated that the team staying together and being locked in are important factors in them winning any game.
In Saturday’s 129-100 win over the Miami Heat, Bridges had 27 points and seven assists. While he did not have a good shooting performance overall (7-of-19 from the field, 3-of-9 from three-point land), Bridges did what he could to impact the game in other ways. He went 10-of-11 from the free-throw line and he picked up two steals while spending a good amount of his time guarding Heat forward Jimmy Butler.
As Brooklyn’s number-one option on the offensive end, Bridges has a role that he has taken with a sense of openness that has allowed him to thrive. He has embraced the fact that head coach Jacque Vaughn has asked him to provide 25 points per game while guarding the other team’s best perimeter player with nothing but success. After Saturday’s win, Bridges spoke about how the Nets being locked out led to the dominance that the world saw over Miami:
“Yeah, it’s great hitting shots and getting stops. That’s the game like that’s what you want. But yeah, we were just making shots and we kept getting stops and we just kept playing transition. The bench, you know, I can hear the bench all the way from the opposite side where like the other half, I could hear them going crazy. So, everyone was locked, energy was there. Just like one through 15. We all played for each other, we were all excited and just sticking with it.”
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Story originally appeared on Nets Wire