Why Knicks game was delayed by bent rim that was actually straight

Saturday’s Knicks victory was delayed for about 10 minutes because of a bent rim that was actually straight.

Apparently Mikal Bridges jump-started an early fourth quarter investigation by telling the officials the rim was askew as he was taking free throws.

The thought was that a previous dunk from OG Anunoby had shifted the metal circle.

But after an MSG worker climbed a ladder and tested the alignment with a level-line tool, the rim was determined to be regulation.

“[Mikal] was the only one who thought it was crooked,” Josh Hart said jokingly. “He has bad vision anyway so I think that’s part of it.”

It didn’t impact the Knicks, who cruised to a 143-120 victory. Bridges also hit his free throw immediately after the delay.

“They asked us if we wanted to warm up and the players felt like they were ready to go so [we didn’t have a warmup after the delay],” Tom Thibodeau said. “That’s an NBA game. Stay focused. … It looked like there may have been a dunk that knocked it off a little bit. And it seemed like it was down a little. But when they hung on it a little bit and it looked like it snapped back and it looked like it was fine. Stuff happens, you just deal with it.”

The Knicks got a boost from their bench against the Kings, specifically from Landry Shamet’s shooting and Precious Achiuwa’s defense.

Shamet, who was recently reintegrated into the rotation, knocked down nine points on three treys — his highest scoring output of the season.

Achiuwa collected five rebounds, two steals and a block in just 18 minutes. Most impressively, the Knicks outscored the Kings by 27 points with Achiuwa on the court.

“His quickness is different and he actually guarded DeMar [DeRozan] on some possessions and did a really good job on him,” Thibodeau said. “But you can put him on the pick-and-roll, he can do two things at once. He can be up on the ball and still get back to his man. And he had a big block. He reacts quickly to the ball. And I think that was important. They were small at times so it allowed us to do a little more switching, too.”