Mikal Bridges Impressing Suns on Both Ends of the Court

Phoenix Suns forward Mikal Bridges led the Suns with 27 points on Friday while continuing his typical play on the defensive side of the ball.

The Phoenix Suns improved to 4-1 on the season after defeating the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday, and for the first time all season, a new leading scorer was found in the Valley.

Devin Booker cooled down from his pace of 32 points per game, scoring just 16 while going 0-4 from three-point land. 

It wasn't his backcourt mate Chris Paul who commands the offense. It wasn't the sharpshooting of Cam Johnson, nor the dominant post presence of Deandre Ayton who left early with a sprained ankle. 

It was Phoenix's best defensive player in Mikal Bridges who picked up the slack when they needed it. 

Bridges scored 27 points on Friday, shooting a wildly efficient 10-13 from the field. Of course he's very capable of putting the ball in the net, but to give you an idea of rare that achievement is for Bridges, 27 points was his season-high last year, which he hit on two occasions in the regular season. 

He also managed to snag one steal and three blocks in what was a complete performance against a tough task in CJ McCollum. 

Count Monty Williams impressed, who touched on Bridges' performance after 

“That’s who is he every day. Tonight, it was on both ends. For him to have 27 points and just hawk CJ (McCollum) the way that he does, I mean CJ is a tough cover. He can score on every level and Mikal just kept coming. Late contest, getting a hand up on his shots, even when he made shots, I thought they were tough shots. The last one he made, we ran him off the line and forced him into a tough two and he just made it, I thought that was great defense and his mentality in those moments is he doesn’t want guys to score. He gets upset when they score but those are the kinds of shots that we want to give up if we are to give up shots. They’re tough twos and I thought he did a good job of forcing CJ to take some tough shots tonight.”- Monty Williams on Bridges. 

Night in and night out, Bridges continues to prove his worth, yet Friday was a reminder he also gets paid to score, too.

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