Mikal Bridges played 41 minutes on Wednesday evening in Portland, and he would not want to put one of these seconds back because he did it during the game’s final game.
However, 41 minutes is a lot, and it is not only this game. No player has played more minutes in total this season than the 2,460 bridges (and counting). Second on this list? Josh Hart. The Knicks preferred to start five – Jalen Brunson, Bridges, Hart, Og Anunoby and Karl -Anthony Towns – played more minutes than any five -minute -old unit of the 334 -minute league, the equivalent of nearly seven more games.
This led the bridges to approach Thibodeau to lighten the charge a little on the entrances, Stephan Bondy at the New York Post.
“Sometimes it’s not fun on the body,” said Bridges. “You will want it as a coach, but also talked to him a little knowing that we have a fairly good team where our bench guys can enter and we don’t need to play 48 (minutes), 47.
“We have a lot of good guys in this team that can take minutes. What helps the defense, helps the offensive, helps tired bodies to be there and abandon all these points. This helps simply keep the bodies fresh.”
Except that Thibodeau said on Wednesday that the conversation never occurred and then defended its distribution of minutes. Bondy again::
“We have never had a conversation on this subject …
“The facts are the facts: your wings play more. So they are accompanied by primary scorers,” said Thibodeau. “So the way it works is that if Jayson Tatum is in the game and Jaylen Brown is in the game, Og will be in the game and Mikal will be in the game. Try to keep the matches. When you watch the league, all these guys play 35, 36 minutes.
As was with the Thibodeau teams in the past, the concern is that he carries players and teams before the playoffs. The Knicks are quite locked in the seeded n ° 3 in the East, but at the moment, this is setting up a first -round match with a Strait team that will not be a pushy and could be a problem for a worn Knicks team (and that does not even touch Boston in the second round). The hope would be that Thibodeau will light up the minutes towards the end of the season so that the legs are cool for the playoffs. This is something to watch in the coming weeks.
