Perhaps the best indication of what’s important for these Knicks — or what’s most relevant to their status as either contenders or pretenders — was the theme of Wednesday night’s postgame locker room interviews.

Karl-Anthony Towns missed his second straight game because of a sprained right thumb, sitting out against his former team when the New York Knicks hosted Minnesota on Friday night.

Karl-Anthony Towns gifts Timothée Chalamet his jersey after the Knicks crush Memphis 143-106, signaling a new defensive era.

After taking apart two of the hottest teams in the Western Conference, next up for the surging Knicks will be welcoming the challenge of the reigning league MVP. Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who has earned that award in three of the previous four years,