Knicks vs. Thunder rumble not just one of 82 games

OKLAHOMA CITY

If you ask Tom Thibodeau, no game means more than another. Each is just one of 82 and his goal is simple: Be playing your best in the end.

And yes, just like you, I don’t believe him.

Maybe the one-sided loss in the season opener in Boston wasn’t a measuring stick. This rebuilt Knicks roster was too new and too raw that day to have been expected to do anything different from what happened. So maybe it’s true: That game meant no more than Wednesday’s win over Utah or the wins in Washington this past week.

But games like Friday night’s contest in Oklahoma City mean something. The Knicks are riding a nine-game winning streak and are 24-10, the fourth-best record in the NBA. But after beating the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night, the Thunder have a 13-game winning streak and the NBA’s second-best record at 28-5.

(Technically, the Thunder are on an eight-game winning streak. They lost to Milwaukee on Dec. 17 in the NBA Cup final, but that game doesn’t count in the standings.)

The Knicks have played two games against the teams above them this season — the 23-point blowout loss in Boston and a six-point home loss to Cleveland. This is the latest chance to show that they’re in the class of the top teams in the league.

“I mean, they’re really good, and they’re better than they’ve ever been,” Karl-Anthony Towns said of the Thunder. “So we got to be at our best to go out there and compete at a high level. We’ve been fortunate to find ourselves winning in the games where we learned a lot about ourselves, and have to take those teachings and those experiences with us to OKC and utilize them to come out with a win.”

And that’s the thing: The Knicks have taken advantage of the schedule in front of them and shown themselves to be the team that they hoped they could be when they swung the offseason deals for Towns and Mikal Bridges, reshaping what already was a contender into a starting five as potent as any in the NBA. The doubts have been cast aside as the fit has fallen into place.

So is this one of 82? Or a chance to put on display that they are a group that can beat any team, not just in early January but in the postseason? Can they get past the Eastern Conference semifinals after stalling there in two straight seasons?

“Yeah, we don’t look at it that way,” Thibodeau said. “I know you guys think it’s cliche, but I think, in this league, when you start looking ahead, you look behind and you get lost as to where you are. It’s easy to get sidetracked like that.

“That’s why we go into the year with the thought in mind about daily improvement and never get away from it. So we hammer that every day. Each game is different, each day is different. So stay focused and understand what goes into winning. Make sure you have your routine down. Don’t let anyone get you off course.”

It’s Oklahoma City that will be on the back end of a back-to-back set (the Knicks will head straight to Chicago for a back-to-back after this game). For the Knicks, the challenge is the road and crossing their fingers that Jalen Brunson will be back at full strength after sitting out Wednesday with tightness in his right calf, the first game he missed all season.

OKC has played 18 games (not counting the Cup final) since former Knick Isaiah Hartenstein made his season debut and has lost only one of them. The Knicks have won 19 of 23.

Are the Knicks at their best now or is there more to come? Is there a deal to be made ahead of the Feb. 6 trade deadline? Is Mitchell Robinson coming back to boost the rim defense? Will he be a part of a deal?

Thibodeau insists he isn’t thinking about that future, and maybe we do believe him on that one.

“Right now, our record says where we are,” he said. “But we also understand that there’s a lot of areas where we have to get better. So don’t get lost in that. The most important thing is finding different ways to win. Be strong on both sides of the ball. Play as a team, be a team. Be a team that’s ready every night. Be a mentally tough team.”

On a night when they didn’t have Brunson, it was Towns who came up huge with a 31-point, 21-rebound effort on Wednesday. But more than that, it was a triple-double by Josh Hart for a second straight game. It was Bridges hitting big shots when the game still was in doubt. The Knicks showed that maybe they can even survive the worst-case scenario: Winning a game when one of their starters is missing.

“I mean, just that we’re gritty, man,’’ said Towns, who on Thursday was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for December. “I think that we do a great job of finding ways to win, even when we’re not at our best, and obviously, we’re trying, we’re adjusting, we’re getting even more and more acclimated with each other.

“But you hope to learn those lessons through wins [rather] than in defeats, and we’re doing a great job of learning as we go and getting more unified with each other. But in that learning experience, we’re finding different ways to win, which is great.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.