Knicks’ balanced offense operating at historic level of versatility comes with big caveat

WASHINGTON — Before his double-nickel gem in the nation’s capital, Jalen Brunson had gone three consecutive games without a trey.

His scoring average had dipped from last season’s nearly 29 points per game — over 32 in the playoffs — to under 25 through 31 games this campaign.

And yet, the Knicks, now the hottest team in the East, were winning, and nobody could accuse Brunson of playing poorly.

Among the more encouraging trends for the Knicks (22-10) is their balanced scoring, perhaps best exemplified by a historic stat: New York became the first team ever to have four players score 40 or more in a game before Jan. 1, as Brunson joined the club with his 55 points in Saturday’s OT win over the Wizards.

The others were Karl-Anthony Towns (44 points vs. Miami on Oct. 30 and 46 points vs. Chicago on Nov. 13), OG Anunoby (40 points vs. Denver on Nov. 25) and Mikal Bridges (41 points vs San Antonio on Christmas).

“I don’t know how you guys find that stuff,” chuckled coach Tom Thibodeau, probably drawing the line at the Jan. 1 stipulation. “I love when there’s all these qualifiers.”