Knicks’ Mikal Bridges struggling to reclaim Villanova shooting form

WASHINGTON — After a brutal shooting performance — and a difficult preseason overall from beyond the arc — Mikal Bridges acknowledged he tinkered with his shooting form in an effort to reclaim his comfort of Villanova.

“Ever since I got into the league, been trying to fix it back to when I was in college,” Bridges said. “So it’s been seven years of just every day.”

Bridges has an unconventional hitch to his form, a habit he said he picked up after going pro in 2018. However, he clearly altered it again before this season and it was ineffective in preseason.

During Friday’s preseason finale defeat against the Wizards, Bridges missed all 10 of his 3-point attempts — leaving him with a paltry 11 percent conversion rate in four appearances.

“When I came out of college, I kind of tweaked it a little bit. And then my second year in the league, I had the hitch, and tried to build back from that ever since,” said Bridges, who, despite the shooting form issues out of college, is a 38 percent career shooter in the NBA. “So just trying to get it right. Pretty much it.”

He wasn’t the only Knicks newcomer to struggle on treys.

Karl-Anthony Towns went 0-for-5 on Friday, leaving him with a preseason 3-point percentage of just 17 percent (4-for-23).

It’s a far cry from Towns’ career efficiency from long distance (40 percent), which places Towns among the greatest ever for centers.

“The shots, they just haven’t fallen, and that’s OK, so I’m gonna keep shooting them,” Towns said before scoring 22 points with 12 rebounds in the Knicks’ 118-117 preseason loss to the Wizards. “I’m gonna keep doing what I do best, and help my team win.”

The Knicks finished 3-1 in the preseason with Jalen Brunson as the top producer averaging 21 points in just 23 minutes.

He had no problems with his shot or his form.

But the new guys were off and the Knicks, whose biggest upgrade this season is supposed to be in shooting, knocked down just 30 percent of their treys overall.

“The game tells you what to do. If you’re open, you have to shoot,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Obviously, the offense even without shooting great, we’re scoring plenty. The defense has to be a lot better.”

Thibodeau expects the Knicks to be a high-volume 3-point team but they need to convert better than the preseason.

“[Friday] night we took 36. I’d like to see that number up a little more,” the coach said. “But we got to the line a lot (38 free throw attempts), and again, the value of shots is important so the layups — obviously you’re trying to get as many of those as you can get. The easy baskets. The open 3s … the thing is, everyone understands the value of shots. The math of the game will tell you certain things. If your opponent makes 20 and you’re making 10, it’s going to be hard to win that game. Ideally, would be high volume and at a minimum league average percentage-wise.”

Bridges is hoping the kinks were worked out with his form.

“Get the misses out now,” Bridges said, “and get ready for the 82-game season.”