TITLE: Bridges keeps ironman streak alive with 23-second cameo in season finale
SLUG: bridges-extends-consecutive-games-streak-with-23-second-appearance
CONTENT:
Mikal Bridges made a token 23-second appearance on Sunday, extending his consecutive games played streak to 638 as the New York Knicks closed the regular season against the Charlotte Hornets.
With the Eastern Conference’s No. 3 seed already locked up earlier in the week, head coach Mike Brown rested every regular starter except Bridges. Brown said before tipoff he would leave the forward on the floor only long enough to preserve the streak, and reserve guard Jordan Clarkson was at the scorer’s table even before the opening jump ball.
Bridges committed a foul on the Hornets’ first possession to stop play, then headed to the bench for good. The brief outing keeps his mark as the eighth-longest run of consecutive games in NBA history, roughly 50 shy of former Knick Harry Gallatin. A.C. Green holds the league record at 1,192 straight contests.
“It’s crazy because load management is a real term,” Brown said pregame. “For a guy like that to be at the number he’s at in consecutive games played speaks volumes.”
The 27-year-old would have been credited with 83 appearances had the Knicks’ NBA Cup championship contest counted toward regular-season statistics. He previously logged 56 games for Phoenix during the 2022-23 campaign before being traded to Brooklyn for Kevin Durant, then suited up for all 27 of the Nets’ remaining games.
Bridges also used end-of-season cameos to protect the streak in prior years, playing four seconds in the 2023 finale and six seconds in the last game of 2024-25. Entering Sunday, 18 NBA players had appeared in every game this season.
Source: ESPN
