Mikal Bridges has been here before, which is exactly why this moment carries a little more weight for him.

The New York Knicks are now up 2–0 in the NBA Finals after holding on for a 105–104 win over the San Antonio Spurs where Bridges played a major role. He logged a team-high 41 minutes and finished with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting, four three-pointers, six rebounds, six assists, and a steal. In the process, he became the first Knicks player since Walt Frazier over 50 years ago to put up at least 20 points, five rebounds, and five assists in a Finals game.

For a player who will always be linked to the massive price New York paid to acquire him, this is the kind of performance that justifies that cost.

Bridges’ biggest stretch came in the third quarter, when the Knicks needed someone to step up. He scored nine points in the period and did much of his damage while sharing the floor with four reserves—Landry Shamet, Mitchell Robinson, Miles McBride, and Jose Alvarado. With the ball mostly in his hands, Bridges took control of the game. He hit a couple of timely shots, found Robinson for an alley-oop, grabbed a key defensive rebound, and helped push New York’s lead back to nine, 84–75, by the end of the quarter.

That stretch mattered because San Antonio never went away. The Spurs kept coming and eventually took the lead in the late fourth quarter, but the cushion Bridges helped rebuild in the third quarter gave the Knicks just enough room to survive. With New York taking a 2-0 lead off a game where Bridges played a key role, the past becomes too hard to ignore.

Back in the 2021 NBA Finals when he was still with the Phoenix Suns, Bridges helped power a Game 2 win over the Milwaukee Bucks with 27 points. Phoenix went up 2–0 in that series, only to lose four straight games. Bridges struggled to maintain the same level of aggression after that, scoring fewer than 10 points in three of the four losses–a disappointing stretch similar to the slump that he just broke out of earlier this postseason.

Now, he finds himself in a familiar position, only with a different team. Bridges and the Knicks are heading back to New York for Games 3 and 4, riding a historic 13-game winning streak and sitting just two wins away from the franchise’s first championship since 1973. Still, Bridges looked locked in after Game 2, as if that previous Finals collapse remains etched somewhere in his mind.

That is the edge that the Knicks need from him.

Brunson and Towns remain the headliners, but Bridges is the type of player who can tilt a Finals series without needing to dominate every possession. He defends at an elite level, spaces the floor, makes the right reads, and can take on more offense when the lineup demands it. The hefty five first-round picks New York gave up for him will always be part of his story, but none of that will matter if he helps deliver a championship.

Bridges has already lived through the worst case scenario of what can happen to a team after a 2–0 Finals lead. This time, he is doing everything he can to make sure that the ending is different.