At full speed, this car runs like a beauty

HERE’S the thing about the Knicks, the very best thing, in fact, across these first 28 games of the year: every so often, they give you 15 minutes of basketball that really can ignite the engine of your imagination.

Every so often, for 10 minutes here, for 12 minutes there, the ball moves and the shots fall, the defense actually looks like something other than an all-you-can-eat buffet. When that happens, especially at Madison Square Garden, the imagination and the electricity can carry them, and carry you.

We haven’t gotten 48 minutes of that yet. We may never get a full game of that because there are still too many cracks and fissures on the roster, which means there are still too many times when even a pedestrian team like the Pacers can look a little too much like the Warriors when they have Knicks guarding them.

But those 10 minutes here, those 12 minutes there? Specifically, the final 15 minutes that closed out this 118-111 win, vaulting them from seven points behind and scuffling to seven ahead and flying?

Yes. Those give you a definite glimpse of what’s possible. What is achievable. “In the fourth quarter the defense picked up and we were able to be more aggressive,” Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said. “We really got some energy going.”

It helps to have Carmelo Anthony, on fire, on your side. Anthony made three straight 3s at the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth, he made 7-of-11 from long range overall and poured in a game-high 35 points. So for one day, anyway, you would expect the debate about whether the Knicks are better or not without him can be suspended.

It helps to have Kristaps Porzingis, on fire, on your side. Porzingis had played an indifferent three quarters, and then, with Anthony on the bench in the fourth, knocked down a couple of 3-pointers, one of which tied the game at 99-all, the other which gave the Knicks the lead for good at 103-101.

It helps to have the Bulls twins, Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, illustrating precisely what the Knicks were hoping to be when they traded for one and signed the other in free agency. Rose had 24 points and six assists and little evidence of the back spasms that plagued him out West; Noah scored 11 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and was a constant source of energy on the court and on the bench.

And sure: it helps the Pacers were playing the second of a back-to-back, their third game in four nights, a most helpful foil for the Knicks to recover from their western trip. Still, the Pacers led by as many as 15 midway through the third. They were still leading with seven minutes to play. They didn’t hand this to the Knicks. The Knicks needed to take it. And took it. “It looked like the tiredness finally caught up with them,” Hornacek said. “And we made enough plays to make it count.”

Said Rose: “We were able to play with a lot of energy. I just tried to get us going, and the team did a great job finding Melo and KP in the second half, and they did a great job of making those shots.”

It will be interesting to see how the Knicks respond to this latest burst of prosperity, because the last time they’d gathered a little bit of momentum they walked into Phoenix, handed away a game at the end of regulation and sent themselves sideways onto a threegame losing streak that ended what had started out as a promising trip.

“We fought, fought hard, found a way,” Noah said. “But let’s not get too carried away. We still allowed [111] points.”

Porzingis: “We are not there yet. We play off of our talent a lot.”

Orlando visits Saturday. The Celtics will be here Christmas Day. There is a chance to build that cushion back over .500, and get back into the upper half of the Eastern standings, before they head back on the road. Every 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, you get the sense they actually may know how to get there.