New York Knicks forward Mikal Bridges extended his streak of consecutive regular-season games played Sunday to 556.
Bridges has the longest active streak among current NBA players and currently ranks 14th in NBA history for most consecutive games played. That puts him 18 games behind Terry Tyler. If Bridges continues the streak and plays in all 82 games next season, he’ll move ahead of six players and overtake Andre Miller at No. 8 with 638 games.
But when that streak is noted, and perhaps celebrated, it may be worth noting how Bridges kept it going at times. The Knicks had nothing to play for in Sunday’s regular-season finale versus the Brooklyn Nets, locked in as the No. 3 seed in the East and a first-round matchup with the Detroit Pistons at No. 6.
Bridges opened the game in a starting lineup that included Cameron Payne, Miles McBride, P.J. Tucker and Precious Achiuwa. He was the only one of New York’s usual starters on the court at tipoff. However, that lasted all of six seconds.
After the Nets won the opening tip, Bridges fouled ball-handler Tyrese Martin and then checked out of the game. That was it for him, and he went to the bench, taking several high-fives from teammates.
It’s not like Bridges didn’t pull these shenanigans 555 previous times to build his consecutive games streak. If any NBA coach is going to make a player earn such a streak, it’s Tom Thibodeau, who loves to ride his starters for heavy minutes. Bridges has averaged 37.5 minutes this season, playing a total of 3,306 minutes. Only teammate Josh Hart has averaged more — slightly at 37.6.
So Bridges probably deserved an opportunity to extend his streak on a day when none of his fellow starters was playing in a meaningless final game. The Nets kept D’Angelo Russell, Cam Thomas and Cam Johnson out of their starting lineup as well.
However, should there be an asterisk or two next to Bridges’ name on that list of most consecutive games played? Even if it’s a streak many NBA fans likely don’t care about? Should someone check in with all-time leader A.C. Green (1,192 straight games played) to see if he ever did anything like this?
The Knicks went on to win, 113-105, with Landry Shamet scoring 29 points (and hitting 7-of-13 3-pointers) after taking over for Bridges. Martin and Trendon Watford each scored 20 to lead the Nets.
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