Mikal Bridges scores career-high 45 points in win over Heat: ‘My teammates kept finding me’

Mikal Bridges isn’t trying to be Kevin Durant. It’s not possible. Durant is a sure fire Hall of Famer who’s been averaging close to 30 points his entire career. Bridges highlighted the package the Nets received to send Durant out West.

What he is trying to do, however, and what was on full display on a career night in Brooklyn’s 116-105 victory over the Miami Heat on Wednesday, is leave his own imprint on a Nets team still hoping to make a playoff run.

“You traded a future Hall of Famer that averaged damn near 30 for his career. So you know, I’m just trying to continue to get better and get to the point where I could score a little bit more,” he said postgame. “I think it’s simple sometimes. [Phoenix] team over there added a piece like KD and T.J, is big time. I think defensively I might play better what KD will lack on defense, but he brings another dimension for them to score the ball. Yeah, I’m confident in myself scoring the ball, but the man has been doing it for all these damn years and doing it really good, and efficient with it too.”

It looks, feels and even sounds different when Bridges has it going. The unfamiliar sounds of celebration echoed from the Nets’ locker room after the star forward’s career night.

After a particularly poor shooting performance in Monday’s loss to the Knicks, Bridges responded by torching the Heat on Wednesday. He scored 45 points to go with eight rebounds and five assists and took control of the game down the stretch in the fourth quarter, scoring 17 of his 45 in the final period alone.

Bridges said he knew he needed to score more in the fourth quarter when the Heat kept the game close late.

”I just came in and I was just feeling good and they just kept finding me and just had a lot of trust in me,” he said.

He has become the new fan favorite in the starting lineup at Barclays Center, drawing “Brooklyn Bridges” chants that have grown louder each game he’s played in his new home.

“I love it. I love it a lot,” he said of the new nickname. “It fits, simple, makes sense. So it’s really dope. I really enjoy it a lot.”

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His explosive scoring night is a welcome sight for a Nets team whose primary concern entering the All-Star break is generating offense — either as a byproduct of moving the basketball or in isolation situations.

If Bridges plays like this every night, the Nets’ rapid rebuild might turn quicker than expected.

The Nets are no longer able to lean heavily on one-on-one scorers after trading both Durant and Kyrie Irving out West, but at times on Wednesday, they were able to lean on Bridges.

He worked in the mid-range, showcasing his stop-and-pop from the elbow all night. He was efficient from downtown, converting on four of his six attempts from deep. He created for his teammates, crashed the glass and took turns defending Miami’s best available perimeter player, Jimmy Butler, who mustered just 13 points on 4-of-11 shooting from the field.

And he sealed the game on a baseline cut, where Royce O’Neale found him for a two-handed dunk that served as the nail in the coffin.

“My teammates kept finding me. They felt I had it going and just kept getting me the ball and set screens and let me operate and coach just drawing stuff up too,” he said. “They gave me the confidence to go out there and just be aggressive, but man, I want to do all that and win, too. I just feel like if you do all that and lose, it’s kind of like an empty stat to me. I’m just happy we got the W and everybody played well.”

Cam Johnson, who arrived in Brooklyn with Bridges in the Durant deal, scored 18 points, and Cam Thomas added 19 off the bench. All five Miami Heat starters scored in double figures, led by 24 from Bam Adebayo and 21 from Gabe Vincent.

The Net defense held the Heat bench to just 17 points.

The Nets now have a weeklong break where a team with several new faces will attempt to build chemistry entering the second half of the season.

The chemistry looks a lot better when the Nets have a player who can shoulder the offensive load. Bridges proved he can. If he can do it for an extended period, the Nets may have the answer to some of the woes that have prevented them from generating quality offense.

“Mikal Bridges is open-minded but at the same time has a consciousness about him that he can communicate with his teammates,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said postgame. “He has a joy about him every day I see him in the gym. He works on his game. So extremely pleased that he’s a part of our future going forward.

“If you want different guys to represent you as a franchise I’m quite sure when he goes to schools and does public appearances, when he’s in the locker room with this group, when he’s talking to his head coach after the walk through today, extremely impressive as a human being and 45 helps too as a basketball player.”