Karl-Anthony Towns’ heroics propel Knicks to overtime win vs. Bulls

The Knicks returned from the All-Star break even more shorthanded than they’d been in the weeks before the NBA shutdown.

But even with workhorse guard Josh Hart added to the street-clothes crew with a knee injury, they kicked off their final stretch of 28 regular-season games by pulling out a gritty, 113-111, overtime decision Thursday night over the Bulls at the Garden.

With OG Anunoby (foot) and Mitchell Robinson (ankle) also still out of the lineup, Karl-Anthony Towns overcame a poor shooting start — 2-for-15 in the first half — to finish with 32 points and 18 rebounds, including 20 points in the third quarter and six more in OT.

Jalen Brunson had scored 18 of his 22 in the first half, fill-in starter Miles McBride contributed a season-high 23 points, and Ariel Hukporti and Mikal Bridges added key fourth-quarter rejections as the Knicks (37-18) won for the 10th time in their past 12 games.

Bridges rejected a Vucevic attempt near the basket on an inbounds play in the final seconds to preserve the tie and force overtime.

Josh Giddey had 27 points with 16 boards and Nikola Vucevic scored 21 for the Bulls (22-34)

The third-seeded Knicks now will face the two teams ahead of them in the Eastern Conference on the road this weekend — Friday night in Cleveland and a Sunday matinee in Boston.

“You trust the medical people, the player. So when they’re ready to go, they go and if they’re not ready to go, they don’t go,” coach Tom Thibodeau said before the game. “And then the next guy get in there.

“I think going into the season you understand you’re going to hit stretches like that and you have to have a strategy for everything. If we’re in a back-to-back, we worry about the first game 1740108682. We’ll worry about the second game tomorrow.”

Four different Knicks nailed 3-pointers in the first quarter, but they trailed 21-19 through 12 minutes, with Towns missing eight of his first nine field-goal attempts.

Chicago’s Jalen Smith left the game with a few minutes remaining in the session after taking a Towns shoulder to the jaw.

The Knicks used a 20-7 splurge — including treys by Achiuwa and McBride — to grab a 10-point lead midway through the second en route to a 50-43 edge at intermission.

Each team shot just 33 percent from the floor in the first half, with the Knicks missing 21 of 29 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc.

Ayo Dosunmu’s 3-pointer pulled Chicago within one with under four minutes remaining, but Towns hit 9 of 11 from the floor in the third as the Knicks carried an 83-81 advantage into the final quarter.

Bridges (13 points) sank three mid-range jumpers, Landry Shamet drilled his second triple of the game and the rookie Hukporti contributed an emphatic rejection of Coby White early in the fourth to help the Knicks push their cushion to seven with 8:48 remaining.

The Bulls responded with nine straight points, including a tying 3-pointer by Giddey and two free throws by Julian Phillips, to pull ahead, 94-92, but Bridges answered from long distance to retake a one-point edge just past the midpoint of the period.

Another Giddey blast from the left corner pulled the Bulls even again, and the Knicks trailed by one before McBride drilled another trey for a 100-98 Knicks lead with less two minutes to play.

Following Vucevic’s go-ahead 3, Brunson coolly hit a step-back jumper from the right elbow for a 104-104 tie with 29.0 seconds to go.

Bridges then denied Vucevic’s inside attempt at the fourth-quarter horn to force overtime, and the Knicks quickly pulled back ahead by seven on McBride’s fifth 3-pointer of the game and three buckets by Towns three minutes into the extra session.

White buried a straightaway 3, however, and the Bulls had a chance down by two in the closing seconds, but Vucevic’s turnaround jumper fell short at the buzzer.