Bridges Continues to Impress
On the opposite end of the Dario defensive spectrum, holy cow, Mikal Bridges. The second-year utility knife for the Phoenix Suns served as a human blanket on Damian Lillard for much of the game. Dame still got his, finishing with a team-high 25 points and seven assists, but Bridges face-guarded him most of the game, denying him the ball even for simple inbounds passes after a basket.
You could tell it frustrated Lillard, too. There was a sloppy stretch of turnovers capped with Lilliard pulled his best Arizona Cardinals quarterback impersonation and chucked an overhead pass three-quarters length of the court out of bounds.
(Yes, I know Cardinals have a good quarterback now in Kyler Murray, so just pretend that joke was made anytime in the last few years.)
Dame ended up regrouping and hit a few of his patented pull-up-from-near-midcourt shots and drained them. I’m not sure what Bridges could have done with those.
Bridges also continued his aggression on the offensive side of the ball. Even though the team rarely run plays designed to get him a shot, he still finds a way to put up points. He finished with eight on the night.
The Suns might be served well run some plays for him, considering he is the only player on the team capable of playing small forward. With Cameron Johnson out for who-know-how-many-weeks with mono, and the once-imminent deal with Jordan McRae seemingly held up or dead altogether, the Suns have been forced to play Ty Jerome at the 3, and it has simply not been working out.
Bridges played 43 minutes total, the same he played against the Bucks on Sunday. That’s impressive, but not sustainable. The Suns need to fill their roster spot with someone who can help him out.