Brooklyn's Bridges fills Durant void with career scoring night vs Miami

NEW YORK – Mikal Bridges understood the magnitude of the trade that shipped him from Phoenix to Brooklyn.

Instead of sulking after he went from a championship contender to a rebuilding team overnight, Bridges embraced the trade as an opportunity. 

The Villanova product went supernova Wednesday night (Thursday, Manila time) with a career-high 45 points to lead the Brooklyn Nets to an impressive breakthrough win, 116-105, over a stunned Miami Heat team. 

It was their first win since Bridges and Cam Johnson, the other piece the Nets have acquired from the Kevin Durant blockbuster trade, along with a boatload of picks, have arrived in Brooklyn. 

Bridges looked like the superstar he’s trying to replace in Brooklyn, as he scored at will from all angles. 

His silky-smooth jumper was unstoppable. Against the Heat stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, he was unflappable. 

Bridges shot 17 of 24 from the floor, including 4 for 6 from downtown. He was a perfect 7 for 7 at the free throw line. 

He single-handedly destroyed the Heat’s vaunted defense with 15 straight points in the fourth quarter, transforming a precarious 90-89 Nets lead with 8:05 left into double-digits, and they were never seriously threatened. 

“I never scored 40 in my life, so it’s a first,” Bridges said.  

More known for his elite defense, Bridges knew he needed to do more on offense for the suddenly star-less Nets. 

''You traded a future Hall of Famer that averaged damn near 30 for his career, so I'm just trying to continue to get better and get to a point where I can score a little more,'' Bridges said.   

But it doesn’t mean he’s shying away from his identity. 

“Defense always comes first to me,” said Bridges, who also had eight rebounds, five assists, two steals, and two blocks in a dominant performance on both ends of the floor. “It was tough. I was getting really tired. But that's just the growth and pains I had to go through.”

In Phoenix, Bridges was the Suns’ unheralded glue guy, tasked to chase the opposing team’s best player and occasionally carrying the offense when Chris Paul or Devin Booker was out. 

“Coming here now and doing the same things [I did in Phoenix] to try and be aggressive [on offense], but also, like always, defense comes first before anything. That's just who I am. And I just think defense wins championships.”

It’s no wonder the Suns had to let him go with a heavy heart, and the Memphis Grizzlies reportedly offered four first-round picks to the Nets to acquire him. 

But the Nets coveted the two-way wing, who just became the second player in the Nets' history to record 45+ points, 5+ rebounds, 5+ assists, multiple steals, and multiple blocks in a single game. 

If you wonder who’s the first one? It’s Durant. 

And to do it this quickly and in a quality win against a playoff contender, the Nets must be feeling good about betting on the 26-year-old Bridges, the 10th overall pick of the 2018 NBA Draft. 

His confidence was already growing in Phoenix, even playing as the third and sometimes fourth option behind future Hall of Famers Chris Paul, Devin Booker, and former top overall pick Deandre Ayton. 

“It's gonna be tough for my path to get there because those guys are in front of me,” Bridges said. “So [I was] just slowly getting better. But with the situation I’m in now, I got to learn and grow up a little bit faster, and I’m excited about the opportunity. It is.”

“I felt like I was [ready for] this,” he added, “and I promise you, I felt really confident before I got traded. And it’s just the perfect time.”

Vaughn said he isn’t sure Bridges would score 45 points every night or 20 points every half. But he believes they have gotten players from the two separate trades for their disgruntled stars who have bought in and are heavily invested in winning. 

Bridges and Johnson, along with Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith, the pair of veterans they acquired in the Irving trade, now comprise the new Nets starting lineup with center Nic Claxton as the only holdover. 

No stars yet. Only hungry and lengthy defensive-minded players who can shine on offense when given the opportunity. 

Bridges is a 6-foot-6 defensive menace with a 7-1 wingspan. Johnson is a 6-8 knockdown shooter with a 6-11 wingspan. Finney-Smith is a 6-foot-8 defensive specialist with a 7-foot wingspan. Claxton is the league’s second-best shot blocker, putting his 6-foot-11 frame and 7-foot-2 ½ wingspan to good use. Dinwiddie is no slouch, either. He’s a 6-6 combo guard with a 6-8 wingspan. 

The Heat’s Filipino-American coach Erik Spoelstra said that the Nets' length and switchability bothered them. 

“Throughout the course of the game, I thought there were windows that were open at the point of the pick against the switches, but we just weren't able to make the plays and be able to keep them honest on that, and so they were able to just gain confidence,” Spoelstra said, “and just flattening us out. You have to credit them for that. They had a lot of length on the wings, particularly going down the stretch, and they're going to be able to do that to a lot of teams. 

It was evident in Jimmy Butler’s quiet night. The six-time NBA All-Star struggled all night, shooting a miserable 4 for 11 from the field for 13 points.  

“I'm extremely excited about this group,” Vaughn said.  “That part of you know, the old era is gone. We got a new era, and we have some guys in the locker room who can really play the game of basketball, who really want to learn about the game, who want to be pushed and coached.”

“And Mikal Bridges is open-minded. But at the same time, he has a consciousness about him that he can communicate with his teammates. He has joy about him every day I see him in the gym. He works on his game, so I’m extremely pleased that he's a part of our future.”

Bridges served as the connective fiber of the Suns’ starting unit as a complementary player to the team’s stars. Now, he can blossom into a star and bridge the disappointing past to usher in Brooklyn's new, promising era. 

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Alder Almo is a former senior sportswriter for Philstar.com and NBA.com Philippines. He is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and writes for the New York-based sports website empiresportsmedia.com.