Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges has had a lot of change to deal with in just a few days. He went from showing the world that he could be a legitimate two-way star while trying to keep the Phoenix Suns afloat while Devin Booker and Chris Paul were out to being traded in the middle of the night for Kevin Durant.
Bridges, who had 23 points and six rebounds in Saturday’s 101-98 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, had about as good of a debut as anyone could ask for when playing their first game with their new team. Bridges shot the ball well, despite missing a somewhat-open layup towards the end of the fourth quarter, and he played good defense on guys like 76ers guard James Harden.
Bridges has had to absorb a lot in a short amount of time and yet, he was able to play just like he did in Phoenix, if not better. He showed that he can do what was expected of him and more since he’ll probably have to be one of the main scorers for the team as well. Bridges spoke postgame about what his debut with the Nets was like:
“It was fun, it was real fun. I kind of knew it was going to when we (Bridges and Cameron Johnson) were watching the game against the Bulls. But, I wish we could’ve had the dub. I mean, that’s probably the biggest thing that I really worried about was just trying to win, whatever it takes. Just…snakes. But, we played good. For the first time for all of us to play, I think we defend really well. Obviously (Joel) Embiid, just how dominant he is and getting to the free throw line. Kind of slows us up a little bit. But, other than that, I think we did pretty good. But just wanna win.”
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Player grades: Mikal Bridges score 23 as Nets lose to the 76ers 101-98
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NBA Twitter reacts to Nets’ disappointing loss to the 76ers
Story originally appeared on Nets Wire