Suns wing Mikal Bridges left off 2020-21 NBA All-Defensive teams

Phoenix Suns wing Mikal Bridges earned four votes for NBA All-Defensive First Team and 31 to make the second team, yet was the first player left off both.

The league released the voting results for the All-Defensive teams on Monday, with Bridges earning 39 total points.

That was four short of the Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard, who earned 43 points as the last player to sneak onto the All-Defensive Second Team.

Bridges joined Suns teammates Chris Paul and Jae Crowder as vote-getters. On Twitter, he called it a “blessing” to receive a good number of votes.

Mannn its a blessing to even receive a good amount votes for any team ! At least we got they attention 😭🤝 we all good fellas lol congrats to everyone fr

— Mikal Bridges (@mikal_bridges) June 14, 2021

Paul was the fourth player left off the two All-Defensive teams and finished with 14 points, with two first-team votes and 10 second-team votes.

Crowder earned one second-team nod.

As a team, Phoenix finished the 2020-21 regular season sixth in defensive rating.

Three teams had at least two players make the All-Defensive clubs.

The Philadelphia 76ers, who were second in defensive rating for the regular season, had guard Ben Simmons make the first team with center Joel Embiid and and backup guard Matisse Thybulle on the second team.

The Milwaukee Bucks, the eighth-rated defensive club, saw forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and guard Jrue Holiday make the first team.

The Miami Heat, which finished 10th in defensive rating, had center Bam Adebayo and wing Jimmy Butler make All-Defensive Second Team.

All-Defensive First Team

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz
Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors
Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee Bucks
Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 76ers

All-Defensive Second Team

Bam Adebayo, Miami Heat
Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat
Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers
Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers
Matisse Thybulle, Philadelphia 76ers

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