Thibs cagy on starting point guard

ATLANTA — Tom Thibodeau said with a straight face 90 minutes before tipoff of the Knicks’ game Saturday night against the Hawks, that with point guards Kemba Walker and Derrick Rose out, he didn’t know who would start at the position.

“I’m still not sure,’’ Thibodeau said.

It was a bit of gamesmanship by Thibodeau as he faced the mighty Hawks, who had romped over the Knicks in a 4-1 first-round series last spring and boast the Eastern Conference’s elite point guard, Trae Young.

Thibodeau wound up tapping Alec Burks for his season’s first start and it worked splendidly in a 99-90 upset win over the red-hot Hawks. Burks, who scored 23 points, revealed that he found out he would start at the morning walk-through.

The Knicks played so well with Burks starting and Immanuel Quickley backing him up at point guard that rookie Miles McBride, who was drafted 36th, did not see any time. There was already talk about the West Virginia point guard being a pesky matchup for Young, who torched the Knicks in the playoffs last spring. But as Burks said, the Knicks showed Young “a lot of different looks like you have to do against a great player.

“Yeah, everything is on the table,’’ Thibodeau said before the game about McBride. “He’s part of the team. So we’ll see how it goes. He’s young, he’s learning and he’s very competitive, great worker who is getting better and better.’’

The Knicks were also without center Nerlens Noel, who missed his 12th game of the season with a sore knee. Taj Gibson (groin) also was out for a fourth straight contest, leaving rookie Jericho Sims in the rotation. Sims had six points and six rebounds in 21 minutes.

The Knicks next the Nets on Tuesday.