Knicks claw back twice but fall just short to defending champion Thunder

Somehow, Jalen Brunson — then OG Anunoby — had the ball with a chance to send the game to overtime.

Down by three points with 6.0 seconds left, both got open 3-pointers to tie the game. But both missed, and that was that.

“Just missed it,” Brunson said. “Wish I could have that one back.”

Players hate talking about moral victories, but this can be classified as one. Still, the Knicks got a reality check. And a bit of a reminder of the championship-level standard that is required for 48 minutes, not just for one quarter.

Give the Knicks credit — they had a plethora of reasons to throw in the towel, but they clawed back twice. The Finals-or-bust Knicks, however, view themselves on the same level as the Thunder, not a team that should be merely happy to be competitive.

And for three of four quarters, they were outplayed and outmuscled by the class of the league. Despite two gutsy comebacks, they fell 103-100 Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

“Honestly, I’m proud of our guys,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “We fought, we did our best to execute against a championship team. At the end of the day, if we’re gonna lose, I want to lose with two of our best players getting the shots they got and giving ourselves a chance.”

After their third-quarter comeback, during which they trailed by 15, the Knicks entered the fourth quarter up three. It marked their first loss this year when leading after three quarters — they had been 19-0 beforehand.

Later, trailing by seven with 1:18 left in the game, the Knicks scored the next four points to bring themselves back within three before Brunson’s and Anunoby’s misses as time expired.

They outscored the Thunder by 13 in the third quarter, but were outscored by a combined 18 points in the other three quarters. In the fourth quarter, they shot just 7-for-21 from the field. Brunson had just three points and went 1-for-6 in that fourth quarter.

Like his teammates, Brunson struggled most of the night — besides the third quarter. Cason Wallace defended him as well and as physically as anyone has all year.

Brunson entered halftime with just two points on 1-for-8 shooting from the field, then came alive for 11 points in the third quarter before his rough fourth quarter. He finished with 16 points and went 5-for-18 from the field, though he did add 15 assists.

“I feel like I missed a lot of shots I normally make,” Brunson said.

After facing that 15-point deficit with 8:12 left in the third quarter, the Knicks rattled off a 24-9 run to tie the game at 72-72 with 2:56 remaining in the third.

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By the end of the quarter, Brunson was double-teamed and lobbed a pass to Mikal Bridges in the corner, who drilled a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to send the Knicks into the fourth quarter with a three-point lead.

The Knicks had just 40 points at halftime, suffocated by the Thunder’s tenacious defense. Then they erupted for 40 points in that third quarter to flip the game on its head. But then they followed that up with just 20 points in the fourth quarter.

“They could’ve folded at any time,” coach Mike Brown said. “We were down double digits. I liked our competitive spirit. Our competitive spirit was great. Those guys make the game ugly.”

They certainly did.

That physicality from the Thunder bothered the Knicks all night, and left them angered by the referees throughout the game and after the final whistle. Brown even got a technical — his first of the year — in the first quarter.

Chet Holmgren had 22 points at halftime, went scoreless in the third quarter then added six points in the fourth quarter as the Thunder staved off the Knicks. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is now 7-0 at MSG, recorded 26 points and eight assists.

Landry Shamet scored 11 points in the third quarter — but just three in the other three quarters. Towns was an efficient 7-for-8 from the field and had 17 points and 17 rebounds, but fouled out late in the fourth quarter.

To be fair, it wasn’t necessarily a true measuring stick — the Knicks were on the second leg of a road-home back-to-back and playing without Mitchell Robinson, who played in their win over the Raptors in Toronto on Tuesday.

They are still without Miles McBride as well.

But the Thunder were also on the second leg of their own road-home back-to-back, having played in Chicago on Tuesday night.

And they are still without All-NBA guard Jalen Williams. Gilgeous-Alexander and Isaiah Hartenstein were rested, though, having sat out Tuesday’s game.

So, the playing field was mostly even. Besides one huge quarter, the Knicks looked a level below.