Phoenix Suns forward Mikal Bridges was arguably the player of the game in Tuesday night’s win at Footprint Center.
Bridges may have only scored two points in the 104-96 victory over the Golden State Warriors, but it was his defensive play that grabbed everyone’s attention.
While guarding Warriors point guard Steph Curry — one of the greatest shooters in NBA history — the Suns forward held the former MVP to only 12 points on the night.
Curry went 4-for-21 (19%) shooting in the contest and 3-for-14 (21.4%) from his trademark three-point shot in just under 36 minutes played.
In fact, those metrics are the worst of his career when taking over 20 shots in a single game.
Curry also only had two assists while turning the ball over twice and finishing tied with center Kevon Looney for the game’s worst plus-minus at -17.
“Mikal’s defense,” Suns head coach Monty Williams praised postgame.
“Steph missed some shots but I think the respect that Mikal has for Steph and our team defense showed him bodies tonight. We tried to make it as tough on him as we could. We just had a number of guys step up.”
Bridges finished the night with four steals, which remarkably wasn’t the most by a single player in the contest as Suns point guard Chris Paul had five.
He did, however, play the most minutes of any player (41:24) and was tied with Paul for a game-high plus-minus of +21.
“It’s just a whole team effort,” Bridges said postgame. “What I really did was just be aggressive and be attached with a lot of screens and a lot of reds.
“But it’s a whole team thing because if one guy messes up on the switch, there’s a slip or it’s a three for him. So it’s a team effort. I think our coverages and what the coaches put together in our schemes was really good and we executed it pretty well.”
