Jalen Brunson returned and drove a defensive steamroller over a surging team at MSG.
Brunson, who missed the previous contest with a scary knee contusion, dropped 26 points as the Knicks breezed Friday night, 98-74, by holding the Magic to the lowest point total for any NBA team this season.
It was the fewest points the Knicks allowed since 2012.
“We played well from start to finish,” Tom Thibodeau said.
The Knicks (37-26), who are soon returning OG Anunoby from elbow surgery, regained the fourth spot in the East by snatching it from the Magic (37-27), which had its five-game winning streak snapped.
Brunson’s impact was immediate.
He scored 10 points in the opening quarter as the Knicks held a 21-9 advantage within seven minutes.
Their lead hit 14 at halftime, then ballooned to 26 at the end of the third quarter.
The Magic, which was 3-0 against the Knicks this season, never led.
It shot just 34 percent overall and 23 percent from beyond the arc.
“We were just really aggressive, on the ball, off the ball, rotations, we were just really in sync today,” Josh Hart said. “Very active in our shell. We did that and we were able to get out and run a little bit.”
The Knicks’ heroes, other than Brunson, were clearly Precious Achiuwa (15 points and 14 rebounds in 39 minutes) and Hart (19 points, seven rebounds, four assists in 42 minutes).
Miles McBride added 14 points off the bench in the wire-to-wire win.
Hart’s energy in the first half, equipped with enthusiastic yelling and celebrations, carried the Knicks through stretches.
His putback dunk with about three minutes left in the fourth sent the crowd into a frenzy and capped his latest “All Hart” performance.
“So happy he was finally able to be athletic once,” Brunson said.
Brunson had missed the previous game with a knee contusion, an injury that had Knicks fans in a panic because it looked nasty. Brunson acknowledged he was also concerned.
“I thought of a thousand different situations of what it could have been and I’m just glad it wasn’t,” he said.
The contusion also kept him out all but 47 seconds of Sunday’s victory in Cleveland.
So basically Brunson had five days for the bruise to heal, and the rest looked good on the 27-year-old.
He shot 11 for 19 in just 29 minutes, nailing a game-high four treys. His night again ended with “MVP” chants at MSG.
The Magic, missing its best perimeter defender in Jalen Suggs (thigh contusion), had no answer.
“You have nothing but respect for him because he does everything he can to get back,” Thibodeau said. “Two workouts a day. He’s on the floor. He’s pushing himself in practice. He gets there early, stays late. Goes through practice. Comes back at night, gets treatment.
“Works out again. Then gets himself ready. Doesn’t take any days off, and that’s why he can do the things he does.”
The Magic entered the night as one of only two East teams — along with the Celtics — that hadn’t lost to the Knicks this season.
Orlando and New York are also potential playoff opponents after entering the night as the fourth and fifth seeds in the East, respectively.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how that all shakes out,” Magic All-Star Paolo Banchero, who finished with 23 points Friday, said. “Fourth through eighth is such a tight race, so you don’t know how it is going to shake out these last [19] games. But it’s definitely a possibility of us playing them.Playing in a playoff series here would be awesome.”
Banchero buried the Knicks in the previous matchup, dropping 36 points on Valentine’s Day in Orlando before telling the invading visiting fans to “Go home.”
On Friday, Banchero told The Post it was important to shut down the Knicks fans to combat the disrespect felt in his own arena.
“When they’re talking to you in your own arena, it hits a little different,” Banchero said. “ When they come to Orlando, you got to send them home sometimes.”
But he wasn’t putting much stock in wins over a depleted roster — “they’ve been pretty beat up the times we’ve played them” — and Friday was a reminder of how much Orlando’s offense can plummet when the shots are off.
“We know what’s at stake,” Hart said of the tight playoff race. “We’re always locked into the scouting report, so I wouldn’t say it gave us more juice. But the focus level was there.”
