NEW YORK — You can’t always take Josh Hart seriously. His jokes fly fast, often hiding more truth than fiction. But every now and then, Hart hits the nail on the head. When the Knicks swingman spoke about how Jalen Brunson’s return might change the way New York plays, his words felt prophetic.

“Kal and OG being in a good rhythm offensively — that’s a good thing,” Hart predicted after the Knicks practiced at Georgia Tech’s Zelnak Center on Friday. “Sometimes, especially in the first two or three quarters, [Jalen] can defer to them a little bit more, not waste so much energy offensively and give a little bit more defensively.

“And then, obviously, the fourth quarter is when it’s time to win — that’s when he has the ball in his hands.”

It didn’t take long to see it unfold.

After a month away recovering from a sprained right ankle, Brunson returned to the floor Sunday for the Knicks’ 112-98 win over the Phoenix Suns — and instead of jumping right back into the driver’s seat, he let OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns help carry the load.

He still closed the game, drilling a dagger 3 in the final minutes. But for much of the night, the All-Star guard was playing off the ball, reading the game, not forcing it.

And that’s the new version of these Knicks — one born out of necessity, and now sharpened for the stretch run.

The Knicks were forced to find new ways to generate offense when Brunson left the rotation with a sprained right ankle in a March 6 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, an issue that compounded when the next two point guards on the depth chart — Miles McBride (groin) and Cameron Payne (ankle) — went down with injuries shortly after the captain.

The Knicks settled on running more offense through Anunoby and Bridges, the pair of wings who kept the offense humming with the All-Star and captain out due to injury.

And with Brunson back on the floor for the first time in Sunday’s 112-98 victory over the Phoenix Suns, the Knicks proved Hart’s prophecy true.

They went so long without their All-Star captain, they learned to survive without him. Now, they can use that to their advantage, keeping Brunson’s workload low as he works back into form after a month-long injury absence, helping him slow-ramp his way with the playoffs two weeks out.

Brunson was rusty in his first game back on the floor, making just two of his first seven attempts from the field. He deferred to Anunoby, Bridges and Towns at different points in the game to help the Knicks secure their 50th victory for the second season in a row on Sunday.

Anunoby scored nine first-quarter points before erupting for 19 more in the third quarter alone, including 11 straight points in a three-minute span. The star Knicks forward finished with a team-high 32 points on 13-of-17 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 shooting from downtown, marking his 10th consecutive game with 23 points or more. He capped the night with a 360 double-pump dunk in transition to put the Suns away with less than a minute left in regulation.

“I think the sky’s the limit,” Anunoby said in his walk-off interview on Sunday. “We’re a really talented team. We’re tough, we’re hard-nosed, and we’re getting ready for the playoffs.”

This time, he did it with Brunson on the floor, quelling the notion he would need to take a step back on offense or be relegated to a floor-spacing role in the corner with the All-Star guard rejoining the rotation.

“The notion of all that stuff — it’s white noise,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said after Saturday’s 121-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks “The game tells you what to do. Whose shot is it in transition? The open man. And if there’s two on somebody, whose shot is it? The open man. You have the responsibility as a primary scorer to make the right play.

“He’s never been [just a floor spacer], exclusively. That notion is a bunch of garbage,” Thibodeau added. “I’ll tell you another thing: I value the corners a lot more than most people. That’s the most valuable spot on the floor.

“That’s a bunch of excuse-making, and that’s the way I see it.”

The Knicks also ran offense through Towns to exploit the matchup with Suns center Nick Richards, a popular trade target among New York fans. Richards was ultimately dealt from the Charlotte Hornets to Phoenix ahead of this year’s trade deadline.

New York’s All-Star big man tallied 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting to go with six assists in the second quarter alone. Towns finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds in 35 minutes on the floor.

Bridges also scored 10 of his 22 points in the second quarter, a period Brunson only spent 6:10 on the court.

Brunson struggled to connect from the field through the first three quarters but nailed a 3 with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter to give the Knicks a 104-94 lead.

Madison Square Garden erupted as the captain performed his signature celebration.

Brunson had averaged 34.4 points in his five games against the Suns while playing for the Knicks entering Sunday’s matchup, scoring 50 in leading New York past the Suns, 139-122, in Phoenix on Dec. 15, 2023.

“He’s played really well against us the past few years,” Suns star Devin Booker told The Arizona Republic’s Duane Rankin at morning shootaround on Sunday. “He’s a tough coverage and they’re a really good team.”

Booker, who scored a game-high 40 points on 16-of-29 shooting from the field, agreed with Anunoby’s assessment of the Knicks with Brunson back on the floor.

“They have the potential to be really good,” Booker said.

Booker beat the Knicks on a game-winning 3 at MSG on Nov. 26, 2023. He reflected on the moment at morning shootaround.

“It’s something you’ve got to experience for yourself,” he told The Arizona Republic’s Duane Rankin. “For anybody who has never been here, most people feel it’s just a magical place upon arrival and not just because of sports. Entertainment. It’s been a hub for longest.”

“It’s the one you dream about. That was one of those shots that in the moment, I could already look down the line and just remember what I was seeing and smelling at the time. Game winner in the Garden.”

The Knicks didn’t give him a chance to seal the deal on Sunday. Next up, a much-needed day of rest before hosting the reigning champion Boston Celtics on Tuesday.

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