With Jalen Brunson missing his first game in two months due to a neck issue Tuesday night, the Knicks knew they’d need someone to step up and carry their offense.

Fittingly, on the Mike and Ike sponsored t-shirt giveaway night at MSG, it was Josh Hart who delivered.

“He must’ve ate some pregame,” Mike Brown joked.

Whatever Hart did, it certainly worked, as he put together one of the most efficient scoring performances of his Knicks career in a commanding win over the Pacers.

He had nine points in the first quarter, then added 10 more in the second to go into the halftime break with a game-high 19 points on a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point land.

Hart wasted no time drilling his fifth three on the opening possession of the third.

His heroics only continued from there, as he knocked down bucket after bucket to stretch his total out over the 30-point mark for the first time this season.

With the game out of reach, he wouldn’t record a bucket in the fourth, but still finished with a game-leading and new Knicks career-high 33 points.

He missed just one of his 13 field goals and was a perfect 5-for-5 from behind the arc.

“Mike and Ike night, I knew I had to turn up a little bit,” Hart said postgame.

“It was fun just being aggressive,” he continued. “Today my PD guy was just telling me to be aggressive, so I just went out there and just played my game and was shooting my shots and I was comfortable with it.”

That aggressiveness is exactly what Brown wants to see from Hart moving forward.

“I just like the fact that he took the right shots, he didn’t hesitate,” the head coach said. “He was 5-for-5 from the three-point line and at least four of them were from the corner, and he’s been really, really good from the corner all year -- if he’s open, we don’t want him to hesitate.

“Usually, when he does hesitate, he takes a couple of dribbles to the basket and it messes up his rhythm and stuff like that. He puts in the work, so for him to let it fly like he did tonight and more of them going in, I was more excited about that than anything else.”

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