Knicks can prove their playoff mettle by finishing season strong against top teams

From the start of training camp, while focusing on the task at hand, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau points to the end, urging the Knicks to be at their best when that time comes.

And while All-Star Weekend along with the hoopla surrounding it and the much-deserved criticism has provided a break in the season, it isn’t a halfway point. When the Knicks return to the court Thursday there are only 28 games left. The push to the postseason will be in full effect.

With Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns representing the Knicks in the All-Star Game, the rest of the team was able to unwind, relax and in some important cases rehabilitate. But it’s time to get back to work. The Knicks are much closer to the end of the schedule than the start and the time may be here to find out just how this rebuild of the roster will turn out.

Maybe they don’t have to wait until the final day of the regular season or the start of the playoffs to find out if they have met that standard. Have they achieved Thibodeau’s goal and done it intact, unlike last season when they were hobbled down the stretch. It was one injury after another and nearly everything they managed was on the shoulders of Jalen Brunson carrying them until he was hurt, too.

Will it be better than the year before when Julius Randle, Quentin Grimes and Immanuel Quickley all were injured and missed time as they exited in the second round of the playoffs.

The legacy of this latest incarnation of the Knicks roster may be written based on health again — but the reason this time might not be based on who is out, but who comes back.

The Knicks were quiet at the trade deadline, watching while Cleveland made a deal for DeAndre Hunter, who was playing the best ball of his career this season for Atlanta, and Boston signed Torrey Craig, a useful wing.

It’s understandable to worry that the improvements they made created a larger gap between those top two teams and the Knicks, but it’s also arguable that the Knicks’ additions after the break could be more important to their chances than the additions the Cavs and Celtics made.

OG Anunoby was a game-time decision in the final game before the break so with the week off he likely will be ready to rejoin the lineup.

Mitchell Robinson has been hinting for weeks that he’s on the verge of returning and in the final days before the break. Thibodeau had said that five-on-five practice work was the next and final step for him before hopefully being cleared to make his season debut.

When they take the court again, they do it in hopes of getting past the Eastern Conference Semifinals where the last two seasons ended for them. The Knicks are in third place in the East, trailing Cleveland and Boston and securely ahead of the pack behind them. But that’s where it gets tricky.

The Knicks are 0-3 against Cleveland and Boston. Neither of the losses to Boston were close. They open up the post-break stretch of the schedule at home Thursday against Chicago and then head to Cleveland for a second night of a back-to-back set and then off to Boston for a Sunday afternoon test against the Celtics.

Maybe now is the time to prove they have met their goals. Or maybe it will be what Thibodeau says and the real opportunity will come in the final days of the season when the Knicks face the Cavs twice and the Celtics once in the final seven games of the season.

Speaking at All-Star media day, Brunson was asked if a championship was realistic now with Towns alongside him.

“I think we’ve grown over the year, and obviously that’s a goal of ours,” Brunson said. “But we have a long way to go. Obviously, it starts with me and KAT. But the team that we have, everyone has bought in. Everyone wants to win. Everyone has that as their goal. As long as we have that as our focus, it’s definitely a possibility.”

We’ll know soon enough. There are 28 games left, maybe a full roster and a belief that there is a chance. Forget the 54 games that got them here, the holes in the roster that Anunoby and Robinson had created. Will they be at their best when it matters most?