Knicks Mikal Bridges Cavaliers Donovan Mitchell defensive test, Digi Mart USA News: The Knicks return to Cleveland on Saturday with a familiar defensive problem: Donovan Mitchell can change a game before a defense finishes setting its help.
Mikal Bridges should get an early opportunity to take that assignment. Josh Hart is out with right ankle soreness, according to CBS Sports, making New York’s available perimeter defenders even more important.
The matchup is a regular-season meeting, not a replay of the Eastern Conference finals New York swept in May.
New York beat Cleveland in four games last postseason, according to Axios. In Game 3, Bridges scored 22 points while Mitchell had 23, according to the game report.
Those numbers establish the stakes, not proof that Bridges individually caused Mitchell’s performance.
The suggested approach is for Bridges to apply pressure at the point of attack and keep help close enough to protect against drives. The important part is the second defender’s timing: send help too early and Cleveland gets clean passes, while arriving too late gives Mitchell room to finish or create.
OG Anunoby is an obvious alternative for stretches, especially if screens repeatedly force a switch. New York can also vary coverages instead of handing the same assignment to one player for the entire night.
The Cavaliers have different personnel and the season is young, so a spring sweep is not a forecast. The Knicks should use their perimeter depth to make Mitchell work while preserving enough flexibility to adjust to James Harden and the rest of Cleveland’s offense.
