Knicks find new level of toughness for tantalizing statement win over one of NBA’s elite

Once in a while across the endless basketball winter, you get one you need to circle, the better to remind yourself later on. So circle this one. Use your brightest red pen. Circle it again. Put it away in a drawer somewhere.

And maybe come back to it in a couple of months, when it’s 30 degrees warmer outside, when it’ll feel 80 degrees hotter inside Madison Square Garden, when maybe there’s a dire moment that somehow turns delirious, a vexing setback that morphs into an invigorating success.

“We were in a funk,” said Karl-Anthony Towns, “and then we found a way to fight, fight, fight. And found a way to win.”

The Knicks were 0-8 at home when losing at the half, and then found themselves down 11 after three to the electric, elastic Rockets. The Garden was disconsolate. The Knicks had gotten relatively good news about OG Anunoby’s foot a few hours before, but the fact is he was still absent, and likely will be for a bit. The Rockets were short, too. But after a foggy no-show by the Knicks Saturday against the Lakers on national TV, this looked like a bookend buzzkill of a night at the big gym on top of Penn Station.