CHICAGO — Mikal Bridges was benched for all but three minutes of the second half, as coach Mike Brown rode with streaking reserves Tyler Kolek, Jordan Clarkson and Landry Shamet to beat the Bulls 133-127 on Wednesday.
Bridges, who has struggled mightily to start the season, finished with three points in 13 minutes.
It represented his shortest appearance as a Knick outside of the two times Bridges was subbed in briefly to maintain his consecutive games played streak.
Part of the reason, according to Brown, was the Kolek-Jalen Brunson backcourt combination was effective.
“We just found a combination we went with,” Brown said. “One of the things [assistant coach] Rick Brunson suggested was throwing Kolek in the game with Jalen. Just to give them a different look and get Jalen off the ball and put Tyler on the floor.
“Doing that, playing Jordan Clarkson extended minutes, Landry was playing well. Now there’s not much room. And the combination we had out there, we kept playing well. It was harder to go back to what we started with.”
Kolek, Clarkson and Shamet combined for 41 points and 15 assists.
There were a couple of injury scares in the first half Wednesday. False alarms.
Midway through the first quarter, Karl-Anthony Towns had the ball at the elbow and was knocked hard to the court by defender Noa Essengue.
Towns hurt his left hand during the spill and writhed in pain on the United Center hardwood. He went to the locker room but re-emerged quickly with tape on his hand and wrist. Towns finished with 19 points, 13 rebounds and five assists.
“He was still shooting that thing from 30 feet,” Brown said. “So the wrist looked good to me.”
With 9:26 left in the second quarter, Shamet limped to the locker room after twisting his ankle. He completed a dunk, took a step and clipped his foot on a Bulls defender. Like Towns, Shamet returned quickly.
