Jalen Brunson brought the Knicks back Tuesday night, but with a chance to win the game, the ball was taken out of his hands. And with that, so was the Knicks’ chance to beat LeBron James.

Coach Tom Thibodeau opted to have Brunson inbound the ball to Julius Randle in the final seconds of regulation, and Randle didn’t even get a shot off. In overtime, James and the Lakers took over, and handed the Knicks their sixth loss in eight games, 129-123, at a sold-out Garden.

“There’s three options on that play. So they have to read the defense,” Thibodeau said. “LeBron was on Jalen and [Anthony] Davis was on Julius and depending on what they’re doing, they could go either way. So there were options on that play.”

Randle drove the baseline after catching the ball from Brunson, then spun toward the middle. His shot, which he released after the horn, was partially blocked by James. Brunson didn’t fault him. The Knicks (27-25) still had overtime to win the game, but they wasted the extra period.

“They kind of just kicked our ass the last five minutes,” Brunson said.

In James’ first game at the Garden in three years, he didn’t disappoint after a slow start. The self-described King produced the 106th regular-season triple-double of his career, and became the first player to have one in his 20th season or beyond, notching 28 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds. He also moved into fourth place on the all-time assists list, passing Mark Jackson and Steve Nash. It was enough to beat the up-and-down Knicks, who started off flat for the second straight game, at the Garden for the 21st time in 29 chances.

“I mean, what he’s doing it’s just LeBron doing what LeBron does,” Brunson said of James, who is now 89 career points from passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for first place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. “It’s amazing to see what he’s able to do in year 20.”

Brunson was brilliant, notching 37 points on 13-for-29 shooting, while the Knicks’ other two leading scorers, Randle and RJ Barrett, shot a combined 11-for-32 from the field. Barrett was taken out with 6:51 left in the fourth quarter and didn’t return. He declined to speak to reporters afterward.

Immanuel Quickley received his minutes down the stretch, and finished with 19 points and eight assists, but like all of the Knicks, his 3-point shot betrayed him. As a team, they shot 7-for-34 from distance, and missed their final 10 attempts.

Defense, though, is what Thibodeau and his players harped on afterward. They allowed the Lakers (24-28), 17th in the league in offensive rating, to shoot 51.6 percent from the field and pile up 54 points in the paint. It was another game in which the Knicks badly missed defensive linchpin Mitchell Robinson after thumb surgery. In seven games since the rim-protecting center went out with the injury, they are 2-5 and 29th in the league in defensive rating, allowing 124.6 points per 100 possessions in that span.

“The way they attack the paint, we had to keep our defense tight. We didn’t keep it as tight as we should have,” Thibodeau said. “When you have those types of players who can [beat you] off the dribble, keeping the ball out of the middle of the floor is a challenge. So we’ve got to be better.”

James’ 3-pointer with 1:41 left in regulation seemed to have iced the game, giving the Lakers a six-point lead after the Knicks had come close to going ahead two possessions earlier. Randle, Quickley, Quentin Grimes and Brunson all missed go-ahead 3-point attempts, and Brunson missed the next time down court.

But the Knicks then reeled off six straight points, four coming from Brunson to get them even at 114 with 24 seconds to go. They couldn’t finish off the victory, however, and instead lost for the ninth time this year by single digits at the Garden. As in so many of those defeats, the latest setback came down to their inability to come through in the final seconds.