LOS ANGELES — Jalen Brunson is out at least two weeks and likely longer with an ankle sprain, a crushing blow for the Knicks with a little over a month remaining in the regular season. 

Brunson avoided a fracture as X-rays were negative, but an MRI exam uncovered a sprain that won’t be reevaluated until March 21, according to Tom Thibodeau. 

“We’ll have more information then,” the coach said. 

As expected, Miles McBride started in Brunson’s spot Friday in a 105-95 loss to the Clippers.

McBride struggled, scoring just seven points on 2-of-13 shooting from the field. 

“Everyone has to step up,” Thibodeau said. “The thing is, you’re not replacing Jalen individually. You’re doing that collectively. So how? Everyone’s capable of playing great defense. Everyone’s capable of rebounding the ball well. Everyone’s capable of taking care of the ball. So if you defend, you rebound and you keep your turnovers down, you’re going to be in position to win. And then you have to make things happen at the end of the game. That’s what we’re striving for. The margin of error is smaller. We have to play with great intensity on every possession.” 

Brunson suffered the injury with about 80 seconds remaining in overtime of Thursday’s loss to the Lakers.

He was fouled on a drive and landed awkwardly on Lakers wing Austin Reaves, crumbling to the court before hobbling to the locker room. 

Thibodeau claimed he was unaware of the severity of the sprain or whether he anticipated Brunson would return before the playoffs.

According to an expert sports medicine surgeon, there’s a large variance in healing time based on the severity. 

“You have mild, moderate or severe. Or, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3,” Dr. Michael Ciccotti, the director of the sports medicine team at Rothman Orthopaedics, told The Post. “The milder ones can be in that two-week period, maybe that three-week period. The moderate ones can be like three or four or five weeks. And the severe ones will be somewhere between five and maybe even eight weeks for the most severe. But those are the ones that usually involve some degree of bone injury. And the X-rays reportedly didn’t show any bone injury.” 

The Knicks were third in the East entering Friday night against the Clippers, but just 3 ¹/₂ games above No. 4 Milwaukee and 4 ¹/₂ ahead of No. 5 Indiana. 

Friday represented Brunson’s second DNP of the season and first since Jan. 1, when the point guard sat with calf tightness.

With 61 appearances this season, Brunson needs to log four more to qualify for postseason awards. 

The Knicks went 1-4 last season without Brunson. 

Rookie Tyler Kolek, an emergency option at point guard, was unavailable Friday, but was flying to meet the team before Monday’s game in Sacramento. 

Mitchell Robinson, who returned last week from a 10-month absence, was ruled out Friday because it was the second of back-to-back games.

The backup center, who underwent ankle surgery in May, has been on a minutes restriction that he said will increase each week. 

Precious Achiuwa, who sat Thursday’s game with hamstring tightness, returned to the active list.