Jalen Brunson put his hands on top of his head in disbelief.
A stone-faced Tom Thibodeau shared some words with a nearby official.
Isaiah Hartenstein helplessly looked for answers.
And the on-court microphones picked up three words from Aaron Gordon, the Denver Nuggets forward on the floor when two-time MVP Nikola Jokic pulled off the impossible.
“Oh my God,” Gordon shouted.
With the Nuggets up on the Knicks, 98-92, with 5:15 to go in the fourth quarter, Jokic isolated Hartenstein on the low, right block.
He spun baseline then drop-stepped under the bucket and pump-faked.
Hartenstein bit.
And when he bit, Jokic absorbed the contact then floated a one-handed shot from behind the basket while falling away from the rim.
An official whistled Hartenstein for a foul before Jokic’s floater banked off the top of the backboard into the net.
A H-O-R-S-E move with the game on the line.
Jokic had 16 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds at the half.
He finished with 30 points — few more timely than his improbable bank shot — on 12-of-23 shooting from the field, to go with 14 rebounds and 11 assists to power the Nuggets to their 13th win in their last 15 games.
The majority of Hartenstein’s 27-minute workload overlapped with Jokic’s 39-minute effort.
Hartenstein’s defense on the MVP’s Harlem Globetrotters audition submission embodied the night he had checking arguably the best player in basketball.
The Knicks threw the kitchen sink at the Serbian sensation but to no avail.
“I mean, he’s the MVP for a reason,” Hartenstein said after the game. “I tried to be physical, tried to give him different looks, but he just does a great job of using his body to get open.
“I think it was a great test and I can keep learning from that, but he’s the MVP for a reason.”
Hartenstein took advantage of the matchup on the offensive end.
He scored a career-high 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field to go with eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal. Eight of those points came in the opening six minutes and 12 seconds for Hartenstein, who is not yet back to playing heavy minutes recently removed from a sore left Achilles.
On Thursday, like most days, Jokic was a step ahead.
And not just with his pinpoint playmaking, but also with the way he used his body get Hartenstein into foul trouble.
Hartenstein fouled out late in the fourth quarter and credited Jokic for his ability to get to his spots on the court despite multiple efforts to stop him.
“He does a good job of getting you off his body,” Hartenstein said after the game. “I don’t think there’s a player like that, as weird as it sounds.
“Like normally, it’s for me easy to steer guys, kind of getting them where I want them to go to, trying to front them. But you’ve gotta respect him. He does a great job of — the way he moves is kind of unique, and he does a great job of getting you off his body. That was the most difficult part today.”
Brunson, who witnessed Jokic’s magic up close and personal, said the team has to do a better job of helping Hartenstein in matchups against elite-level big men.
“Isaiah’s been playing great all year. He started off the game strong and really set the tone for us, and I think as teammates, all of us have to do a better job of helping him out because he’s kind of alone down there,” said Brunson. “It’s tough and we were pretty small tonight. So we’ve gotta gang rebound. I didn’t really do much of the rebounding part, so I’ve gotta do my part. Yeah, we’ve gotta help him out a little bit.
“He’s the MVP for a reason. He played well. They all played well. They had a couple more plays than us tonight. I thought we played hard. We just didn’t get the job done.”
DIVINCENZO APPROACHING RECORD
For Donte DiVincenzo, a Knicks franchise record is within reach.
DiVincenzo shot 3-of-8 from three-point range for 11 points in Thursday’s loss to the Nuggets.
As a result, he passed both John Starks (217) and Julius Randle (218) for second-most threes made in a single Knicks season in franchise history with 219 made treys on the year.
Former Knick Evan Fournier holds this franchise record with 241 threes made in the 2021-22 season.
That leaves DiVincenzo with 13 games to make 23 triples for the franchise three-point crown.
An average of roughly 1.77 threes per game to close out the year for a sharpshooter averaging 3.2 made threes per game this season.