Knicks’ Mikal Bridges has shooting issues behind him

For Mikal Bridges, his first two games with the Knicks were like night and day – or road and home.

Any concerns about his wayward shooting appear to be behind him.

Bridges marked his Garden regular-season debut with 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting in the Knicks’ 123-98 victory over the Pacers.

“It was awesome, man,” Bridges said. “Just the excitement here; it’s really crazy. I’m just happy about the win.”

Bridges received a big round of applause from his new home crowd, and the Knicks led by 28 points with 9:30 left in the fourth quarter.

Bridges, acquired from the Nets in the summer, made 15 of 20 shot attempts over the final six quarters after missing his first five shots, including four from 3-point range, in a scoreless first half against the Nets on Tuesday night had the Celtics.

He had also talked about tinkering with his shot when he hit 2 of 19 shots from 3-point range in the preseason.

“If you think about it logically, I think where we are today, with social media, everyone wants to have an opinion on everything,” Tom Thibodeau said. “And yet the guy who does the work every day, when you watch him work you know how much he puts in, and then you know how much work he puts in.

“No one is going to shoot great for 82 games. A lot of times you’re in pre-season and you’re just trying to work through things and get into a rhythm and you’re trying to find a new system and new teammates. And it gets better and better every day. But if you think logically, this guy shot almost 38 percent from 3 in his career. I’d bet on it.”

Bridges was also torched in that game by All-Star forward Jayson Tatum, who scored eight of Boston’s NBA-record 29 treys.

But he also improved dramatically on defense Friday night, helping keep Pacers All-Star Tyrese Haliburton scoreless.

Imported center Karl-Anthony Towns also had a more impressive game Friday than his quiet night with 12 points and seven rebounds in Boston, finishing the game with 21 points, 15 boards and two blocked shots in 32 minutes.

“I thought Karl had a monster game,” Thibodeau said.