Knicks can’t overcome brutal Jalen Brunson performance in loss to Celtics

BOSTON — A loss to the Celtics reinforced the obvious: if Jalen Brunson is this bad, the Knicks don’t have much of a chance.

The star point guard completed his worst game of the season in Tuesday’s 123-117 defeat to the Celtics, missing 15 of his 21 attempts with three turnovers as the Knicks’ road woes continued.

The defeat snapped a four-game winning streak for the Knicks (13-7), who fell to 3-6 away from MSG.

Brunson was uncharacteristically off.

Way off.

He went 1-for-8 from beyond the arc, including an open trey with just over five minutes left that barely touched the rim. Most of his jumpers were short.

Still, the Knicks battled back from big deficits — including 18 early in the fourth quarter — to cut it to 3. Flashbacks of the playoff miracle Knicks comebacks at TD Garden probably infiltrated minds in the stands and on the court.

But Brunson couldn’t hit a shot and he flubbed two floaters in the final two minutes. It might’ve been his worst game in a Knicks uniform, not just of the season. Mikal Bridges, who dropped 35 points on 12-of-17 shooting (including 8-for-12 on 3s), did his best to drag the Knicks to a win.

But Brunson’s dud was too much to overcome.

For the first seven minutes, the Knicks were stellar. Josh Hart was burying 3-pointers at an outrageous clip, dropping 11 points in the opening quarter. Karl-Anthony Towns was a force. Miles McBride was knocking down treys.

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The Knicks started with a 17-4 run after tipoff.

But it deteriorated by halftime, largely because they had no answer for Jaylen Brown. The Celtics star dropped 18 of his 42 points in the second quarter, feasting on a leaky New York defense as the Knicks reserves — namely backup point guard Tyler Kolek — couldn’t keep up.

Kolek was on the floor for only 15 minutes and the Knicks were outscored by 23 points. Mitchell Robinson’s playing time was also a big negative for the Knicks and included the season’s first deployment of Hack-A-Mitch.

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla sent Robinson to the foul line twice on purpose in the first quarter, with the center going 1-for-4 from the stripe. Hardly a deterrent.

Nonetheless, no Knicks player was as bad as Brunson.

His team returned to the scene of their high point last season, the TD Garden that hosted their improbable comebacks in Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

For the players — and Bridges, in particular — it was a validating experience after the regular-season results prompted concerns that the Knicks weren’t legitimate.

“It was fun to see our team through all the adversity and everything being said about us and the series to come out here and play good basketball and give ourselves a chance to win,” Towns recalled before Tuesday’s tipoff. “We didn’t do it early on in every game. But we came out with a win. I remember our whole team being special when it needed to be special.

“We play for the New York Knicks. There’s adversity every day. So just going out there trying to win against a team that obviously has a championship under their belt and been together for a long time. For us, it’s staying on the task at hand and doing everything we can to win the series.

It was also a reminder that the regular-season results are often inconsequential in the playoffs. The Knicks were smacked four times by the Celtics last season, including a blowout in the opener at TD Garden. One Knicks player, speaking from the locker room Tuesday, remembered it as “belt to ass.”

Yet the Knicks still triumphed when it mattered most in the playoffs. So they can at least take salvation in that after Tuesday’s loss.

Because Brunson playing this poorly doesn’t happen very often.