MIAMI — The Knicks needed their clutch hero, but he was in street clothes.
With Jalen Brunson missing his second straight game because of a sprained ankle, the Knicks just couldn’t convert the big bucket in Monday’s 115-113 loss to the Heat — with Miles McBride and Karl-Anthony Towns combining to miss four potential game-tying shots in the final 20 seconds.
The end of the game descended into confusion as McBride, with the Knicks trailing by two points, launched an ill-advised jumper that missed badly.
Towns picked up the rebound and attempted a putback that was rejected by Heat center Kel’el Ware.
Initially, the refs ruled goaltending on Ware and that the score was tied with 13.2 seconds remaining.
But a review reversed the call and the Knicks got two more chances in the final moments that also fell short — another miss by McBride, another missed putback by Towns.
Game over.
Not long before, the Knicks, who were up by 5 in the fourth quarter, lost control by going over 3 ½ minutes without scoring a point.
As a result, they trailed by 10 with about three minutes left but battled back behind Towns (22 points, 15 rebounds) and McBride (25 points).
The duo were strong until failing when it really mattered.
The Knicks were missing two of their best players to injuries, Brunson and OG Anunoby, prompting Mike Brown to go small with McBride and Landry Shamet starting in the backcourt.
It was the first DNP for Anunoby, who strained his hamstring in Friday’s victory over the Heat.
The forward is out at least two weeks — but probably longer — and didn’t travel with the Knicks for their three-game road trip, which continues Wednesday in Dallas before Saturday’s finale in Orlando.
Brunson, who sprained his ankle in garbage time of last week’s loss to the Magic, is much closer to returning and warmed up without hindrance pregame Friday on the Kaseya Center court.
Without Brunson, the Knicks offense was less impressive while shooting just 25 percent from beyond the arc.
Mikal Bridges, who finished with 23 points but none in the fourth quarter, said the Knicks have to figure out life without their top scorer.
“Not too many people in the league can do what Jalen does so you can’t really just mimic what he does by subbing somebody else in,” Bridges said. “But I think just playing within our game. Jalen is a great iso player, and not many guys can score like him. So that’s a part of his game. Other guys got their games where it might be a little different. I think we just plug in new guys and do what you do. Play to your strengths.”
The Heat were also understaffed without Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro.
But they got double-digit scoring from seven players, including Norm Powell’s team-high 19.
It was a rematch from Friday’s game at MSG, and a much different story.
In the first matchup — a 140-132 Knicks victory — New York’s offense was humming behind exquisite shooting from Towns and Shamet. The Knicks scored 78 in the first half.
Three days later, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra adjusted by throwing smaller defenders at Towns — often frustrating the big man — while Shamet came back down to earth while scoring just 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting from the field.
The Knicks are also a different team on the road, where they’re 0-4 compared to 7-1 at MSG.
Brown said he’s trying to install a system without much practice time.
“It’s hard. Really hard,” the coach said. “You have to have trust in your team, and you have to have a pretty good feel of at what stage your team is. When I was at Golden State as an assistant, we didn’t need a lot of reps. It was a veteran team that knew what they were doing. When I was in Sacramento, initially it was a younger team and not many of those guys had been to the playoffs. They needed a few more reps. This is similar to the Golden State situation where it was a veteran team so you watch and you give them an opportunity to teach you at times but you also have to utilize your coaching staff, and that’s part of the reason why we have a big staff.”
