Mike Brown praises Mikal Bridges' hard work and intense defense on Tyrese Maxey

The New York Knicks have continued their dominance over the Philadelphia 76ers. They are now 3-0 up against the 76ers, which is a lead that has proven to be insurmountable for any NBA team in history.

Mikal Bridges has been instrumental for the Knicks in this series, especially with the matchup against Tyrese Maxey. While the 76ers guard has been efficient, he has been quite passive, and that is mostly down to Bridges' pesky defense.

Mike Brown commends Mikal Bridges' pesky defense on Tyrese Maxey

In the first round, Bridges struggled against the Atlanta Hawks. They had to go through a tough six-game series to dispatch of them, but Bridges did not have the best series until that final Game 6.

Now, it seems that performance has set Bridges straight. He is now scoring at an efficient clip, but his hard work and defense continue to be at a high level. Head coach Mike Brown had nothing but praise for Bridges because of his Game 3 performance against Philly.

MORE: Mikal Bridges earns Mike Brown's respect after Game 6 vs Atlanta

Maxey finished Game 3 with only 17 points. He was quite efficient, shooting 8-for-12 from the field, but he was pretty passive in the second half.

They could have turned the game around, but Bridges was bothering Maxey so much that he struggled to get shots up. That is a great defensive performance from Bridges, which is especially important due to OG Anunoby's injury.

"I would not be doing my job if I didn't point out the continued work that Mikal is doing at the point of attack when it comes to Maxey. He is a great player, you can't stop him, you're hoping he misses a few shots, but you've got to give multiple efforts to guard him, and Bridges is busting his behind doing that," Brown said about Bridges' superb defense against Maxey.

Moving forward, Maxey should be more aggressive if he wants the 76ers to have any chance of coming back in this series. Bridges will continue to work hard, as he is gaining more and more confidence with every good game.

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