GREENBURGH — The result, Josh Hart and Mike Brown readily acknowledged, was not the one they wanted.

But the way the Knicks played, the process implemented and enacted 24 days earlier against the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder left the swingman and the coach with a relatively positive feeling.

“I feel like we kind of executed our game plan,” Hart said Saturday about the Knicks’ 103-100 loss to the Thunder on March 4 at the Garden. “We give them credit. Chet [Holmgren] had a great game. Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] had a good game. Obviously, defensively they played well. That’s the main thing I remember. They’re good. And I think we played very well, too.”

A cursory glimpse at the boxscore shows that the Knicks outrebounded the Thunder (48-38), recorded more assists (23-21), committed fewer turnovers (15-13) and essentially matched them shot for shot from the field. The Knicks made 37 of 88 shots from the field for a 42% accuracy rate. The Thunder connected on 33 of 73 attempts (45%).

So, then, what was the difference? Oklahoma City made 38% of its three-point attempts (16-for-42) and the Knicks went 10-for-35 from beyond the arc (29%).

“It was a good game. It was a competitive game,” Brown said. “Shai hit a big three I think down the stretch to create a little separation, but that could have been anybody’s game at the end of the day. Usually when you have two good teams, that’s what the result can be.”

So, then, what do the Knicks (48-26) have to do differently to leave Oklahoma City with a win over the Thunder on Sunday night?

“Communication and effort,” Mitchell Robinson said. “That kind of slows up anybody. The more [we are] connected, the more we talk and be there for one another and have each other’s backs, we’ll be all right.”

It might be a tad hyperbolic to label the nationally televised contest a measuring-stick game for the Knicks, who entering Saturday had the second-best record in the Atlantic Division, the third-best record in the Eastern Conference and the sixth-best record in the NBA.

Still, Oklahoma City has the best record in the league at 58-16. The Thunder have gone 30-6 at home this season and are yielding the second-fewest points per game in the league (107.7). Their 11.1-point differential per game is the best in the league.

Oklahoma City has six players averaging double figures in scoring, led by Gilgeous-Alexander’s 31.4 points per game. Add to that his average of 6.6 assists per game and the 27-year-old guard is among the frontrunners for MVP.

Gilgeous-Alexander has taken 561 free throws in 62 games, an average of nine per game. After the loss to the Thunder, Brown said the 6-6, 195-pounder “does a great job of convincing the referees, probably better than anyone in the league, that he’s getting hit.”

“He’s crafty,” Brown said of Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 26 points in the first matchup. “He’s the one that’s figured out how to make sure he’s in position to take advantage of the situation . . . We have to do a better job of not helping him or enhancing what he does really well.”

McBride questionable

Deuce McBride, who has been sidelined since Jan. 27, first with an ankle injury and then because of surgery to repair a sports hernia, has been upgraded to questionable for Sunday’s game at Oklahoma City. McBride has averaged a career-high 12.9 points per game in 35 games this season.

Newsday’s Steve Popper contributed to this story.