Knicks’ Mikal Bridges suffers brutal shooting night in return to native city

PHILADELPHIA — Mikal Bridges could build a house in his native city with the many bricks he put up there.

The Philadelphia product and Villanova alumnus shot a brutal 3-for-16 from the field and 1-for-9 from 3-point range in the Knicks’ 112-109 win over the 76ers on Saturday afternoon.

He also sat the last 5:24.

Instead, coach Mike Brown decided to roll with Landry Shamet and Miles McBride down the stretch over the struggling Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns, who had fouled out earlier in the quarter. It was a small lineup — with Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and OG Anunoby primarily on the floor with Shamet and McBride.

That meant Anunoby had to guard Joel Embiid.

“We can’t do anything like that if you don’t have a guy like OG,” Brown said. “OG allows us to play the basketball game in a lot of different ways. So, we were able to do it.”