CHARLOTTE – After another ride on the struggle bus for Mikal Bridges on Friday afternoon — which included the guard being benched for most of the fourth quarter of a nip-and-tuck Knicks victory — he pledged, “I’ll be better” as teammates and coach forcefully went to bat for the embattled guard.

“I’m not worried about [Bridges],” Josh Hart said. “I think the media and people are killing him. He’s in a new situation. He’s in a situation where he’s played 19 games in a different role that he’s played the last four years. So it’s our job to get him going. And all the other BS about what we gave up [the five first-round picks to the Nets], it means nothing.

“If we win, if we get a championship, ain’t nobody give a damn about how many picks we gave up. We could’ve given up 15 picks, it don’t matter. At the end of the day, we’re trying to win a championship. He’s going to be a key piece of that.”

Bridges, largely a two-way disappointment this season, managed eight points on 3-for-10 shooting and was only used by Tom Thibodeau for three defensive possessions in the final 8 ½ minutes.