No one can accuse the Knicks of not taking advantage of the soft spots in their schedule this season, even if this one was anything but easy.

Tom Thibodeau was not happy with his team’s defensive intensity after the Knicks allowed the NBA-worst Pistons to hang around deep into the fourth quarter before ultimately pulling away and extending its season-long success against losing teams.

Jalen Brunson pumped in a game-high 42 points to help the Knicks survive and send the Pistons to their 16th consecutive defeat, 118-112, Thursday night at the Garden.

“They play really hard, and I knew they wouldn’t go away. So I knew we were in for a dogfight,” Thibodeau said. “Our defense wasn’t very good tonight. Our rebounding wasn’t where it needed to be. In the end though we found a way to win, and that’s the bottom line — to find a way to win.

“Tonight we won with our offense. So win games in different ways, but obviously we have to do a lot better than we did.”

Brunson, who fell three points shy of his season high of 45, buried 7 of 12 attempts from 3-point range.

Julius Randle chipped in 29 points with 10 rebounds and eight assists as the Knicks (11-7) improved to 9-0 this season against teams that began play Thursday with a record below the .500 mark.

“It’s definitely a good feeling to see the ball go in the rim, but I think the one thing we can take away from this game is our defensive approach and mentality,” Brunson said. “We gotta be better. We gotta be better at holding leads and can’t put ourselves in a position where it’s a grind-it-out game when we had a comfortable lead.

“We respect them, but we have to be better in doing what we do.”

Despite what is now a 2-17 overall record this season for the Pistons, Thibodeau had warned that Monty Williams’ squad is a “young and explosive” team.

Cade Cunningham had a team-high 31 points, Killian Hayes scored 23 and Marcus Sasser added 17 off the bench for Detroit.

RJ Barrett added 15 points while Donte DiVincenzo played the entire fourth quarter and finished with 12 for the Knicks, who will play the tail end of back-to-back games Friday night in Toronto against the Raptors (9-10).

Brunson took just nine shots and netted 12 points against Charlotte, but the $104 million point guard dished out a team-best seven assists.

He exceeded that scoring output with 15 points — including a trio of 3-pointers — in Thursday’s first quarter, as the Knicks grabbed a 31-17 advantage through 12 minutes.

Randle had posted a terrific game two nights earlier with 25 points and a season-best 20 rebounds, and he added nine points in the opening quarter against the Pistons, including six in a 13-2 closeout run.

Still, the Pistons used a 15-4 surge against the Knicks’ second unit to open the second quarter to close within three.

Consecutive 3-pointers by Brunson and DiVincenzo — and a converted four-point play midway through the quarter by Brunson — helped the Knicks push the cushion back to 13.

But five treys combined from Cunningham (18 first-half points) and Sasser (12) triggered a 20-7 run to end the quarter, pulling the pesky Pistons even, 54-54, at intermission.

Brunson continued his scorching outside shooting with two more 3-pointers early in the third, but Hayes dropped in a short jumper for a 69-69 game at the six-minute mark.

Detroit finally nudged ahead on Sasser’s fifth 3-pointer of the game, and a late dunk by Marvin Bagley III put the Knicks down by two, 87-85, entering the final period.

DiVincenzo’s left-side triple and a slashing drive to the basket by Josh Hart helped the Knicks reclaim a 97-93 lead with 8:31 remaining.

Mitchell Robinson, shooting a paltry 35.3 percent this season from the free-throw line, also sank two from the stripe to further invigorate the home crowd.

DiVincenzo coolly sank two more 3s to extend the lead to 109-103 with 4:31 to go before Randle netted four straight points in the final two minutes for the Knicks.

“I’d rather learn from winning than learn from losing,” Brunson said. “A win is a win and I’m not going to discredit us from that. But we know what we have to do to be better.”