SAN ANTONIO — When Jalen Brunson went down in Los Angeles a little over a week ago, with his ankle turned in the opposite direction, all eyes shifted toward Mikal Bridges as the man who needed to step up in his absence.

With Jalen Brunson sidelined, Mikal Bridges has started to look more like the guy the Knicks hoped they would be getting when they traded a bundle of draft picks to the Nets.

It's been a rough two weeks for the New York Knicks without Jalen Brunson. They are just 3-4 in his absence, and only one of those games came against a team currently holding a top-six playoff seed. On Thursday,