Mikal Bridges

The expected demise of the Brooklyn Nets following the jettisoning of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant has not manifested as forecast, with forward Mikal ...

that keeps everybody in the game." After amassing 30 fast-break points in a 12-point victory in San Antonio on Saturday, the Rockets scored 34 points in transition in their 142-110 home win on Sunday. "And again, it starts on the defensive end. Eight Rockets scored in double figures in the first victory and seven did so in the season-series finale, paced by Jalen Green, who totaled 31 points on 11-of-19 shooting. He averaged 17.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists with a 52.9 effective field-goal percentage in 56 games with the Suns before joining Brooklyn as part of the Durant trade. The teams will meet again on March 29 in Brooklyn.

Mikal Bridges has turned heads across the league following a blockbuster trade to the Nets, with his mid-range brilliance taking center stage.

And so if you make it at a high level, you get rewarded for it, but you see getting to the rim puts an extreme amount of pressure on the defense, so if we can mix in getting to the rim like they did in the second half, we can take some of that mid-range.” Overall, it has become increasingly evident each year for the last decade that a select group of players possess the talent to justify a heavy dose of mid-range shooting. That ranked in the 95th percentile for wings and would have ranked in the 99th percentile among point guards. After all, the absence of a closer has been evident during several losses for the new-look Nets. The coach’s concerns should not come as a surprise given his team’s league-worst rate of shots at the rim. “I know the analytics with the threes and layups, but we’re basketball players at the same time, we work on our games. Sometimes you can’t get to the rim, you just can’t. If they’re going in we love them, but we do wanna have a profile of really getting to the rim and shooting threes and putting pressure on the defense that way also.” [ranks dead last](https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/shooting?DateFrom=02%2F10%2F2023&DateTo=03%2F06%2F2023) in shots at the rim and has voiced a desire to take 40-plus threes per game, it’s easy to see how there could be conversations surrounding Bridges’ shot chart. There’s a lot of other space on the floor that you can get to. “What we do want is for him to continue to get to the rim and shoot threes for us. In nine games, the former lottery pick is averaging 26.1 points on 53.6 percent shooting from the field and 50.0 percent from three.