As Mike Brown tinkers with postseason rotation, Miles McBride shows he’s ready & fully healthy

The regular season is now over, and Mike Brown now shifts his focus to postseason rotations for a deep playoff push.

The head coach said last Thursday his potential nine-man postseason rotation “might change,” but one thing looks certain after Sunday’s season finale loss to the Charlotte Hornets: Miles McBride looks fully healthy and on track to log serious minutes for Brown’s playoff squad.

McBride recorded his best game Sunday since returning from a February sports hernia surgery: 21 points, three rebounds, one assist and one steal in 24 minutes.

His extended minutes came with Brown resting every usual rotational player as the regular season came to an end. Mikal Bridges logged just 23 seconds to extend his games played streak while Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson didn’t get a second of action.

McBride took advantage of their DNPs, knocking down four three-pointers in the 110-96 loss.

The game might’ve been meaningless — but not for McBride, who hadn’t had such a performance following two months of recovery post-core-muscle surgical procedure.

His return, however, wasn’t seamless.

The guard tweaked the injury during his first game back against the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 29, but didn’t miss any time afterwards.

In his five games back, McBride shot 6-for-27 from the field. On Sunday, he turned in an efficient 8-for-15 outing.

And he did it in just three quarters of action.

Aside from the Knicks’ starters, Brown noted McBride along with Robinson, Landry Shamet and Jordan Clarkson could fill out the top-9 rotation in the postseason.

If Sunday was any sort of audition for any out-of-rotation player to get postseason playing time, no one overshadowed McBride — or anyone in the top-9.

With Brunson sidelined, Jose Alvarado took over most ballhandling duties while defending Hornets star LaMelo Ball.

The Brooklyn native logged 16 points, five rebounds and seven assists in 34 minutes of action. The guard knocked down four three-pointers, while shooting 6-of-16 from the field.