Hernangomez making his case for next year

SAN ANTONIO — Even before Joakim Noah’s drug suspension for taking a banned, over-the-counter, performance-enhancing supplement, Willy Hernangomez had muscled his way into the starting center picture for next season.

Now it appears a near certainty. Saturday against the Spurs, Hernangomez had a career-high 24 points on 11of-16 shooting to go along with 13 rebounds in the 106-98 loss.

“He’s getting better and better every game,’’ Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said. “The expereince against this team with LaMarcus [Aldridge], [Dewayne] Dedmon, Pau [Gasol], those are long, long guys. You see how smart a player he is. He didn’t try to jump over the guys and challenge them — he shot his little floaters over them.’’

Noah will miss, at the very least, the first 12 games of next season to finish out his suspension. Noah could begin serving his suspension Tuesday when he may get cleared for practice.

Asked about Noah’s suspension, Hernangomez said, “Jo’s my friend and great teaammate. He had injury a couple of weeks ago and tried to use that time to start the games. Next year I’ll feel more ready than this year if I keep working the same way.’’

Hernangomez has been mostly a starter since early February as Noah hasn’t played since Feb. 4, when he suffered a relapse of his training-camp hamstring injury, missed seven games, then opted for arthroscopic knee surgery in late February.

Though he has shown lapses on pick-and-roll defense and isn’t a shotblocker, Hernangomez is one of the few building blocks culled from a lost season.

Carmelo Anthony sat out his second straight game with a sore left knee that swelled up after the Utah game. Primarily he rested to give young guys such as Maurice Ndour a shot. ... Lance Thomas, too, missed his second straight game with a sore hip.

In rare form, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said the basketball questions were so terrible, he begged for a political one. He got one — on Donald Trump’s foiled health-care plan. Popovich said he had a feeling Trump didn’t care.

“He didn’t put his name on [the plan] — is there anything he owns he doesn’t put his name on?’’ Popovich asked.