It was a disappointed, but not defeated, locker room. The Knicks’ eight-game winning streak had just been snapped by the underachieving Raptors.

While the team’s first loss since Dec. 3 was being dissected, players were already looking ahead to Friday night. Moments after the bitter defeat, they were eager to put it behind them and shift their focus to the Bulls.

“We took a step back tonight, I took a step back tonight,” Jalen Brunson said after one of his worst performances as a Knick — a forgettable seven-point, five-turnover showing he felt led to his team’s downfall Wednesday. “We can’t take two, three, four, five steps back. We have to take another step forward, get ready for Friday.”

As impressive and eye-opening as the eight-game winning streak was for coach Tom Thibodeau’s team, and it certainly changed the narrative in the early part of this season, it will only be significant if the Knicks can build on it. If they can sustain that high level of play. If they can continue to defend, share and shoot the ball as they did in those eight victories.

That’s certainly what the robotic Thibodeau is preaching. Even during the win streak, he played down the significance of the momentum the Knicks (18-14) were building, maintaining the only thing that matters is preparing for each game the same and continuing to improve. He doesn’t want his players thinking about what they have accomplished or looking too far ahead.

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“Make our corrections, get ready for Chicago, and be ready to go,” he said.

There were positives to take from the loss, despite so much that went wrong. Quentin Grimes, a major key to this recent run, was out with a sprained right ankle Thibodeau believes is minor. The Knicks were beaten soundly on the glass, allowing 16 offensive rebounds, and were a minus-12 in turnover differential. They had no answer for Pascal Siakam, who went off for 52 points. But they still were right there in the end, rallying from multiple double-digit deficits before going cold in the final three minutes.

“At the end of the day, I still think we’re playing really good basketball, playing really well on both ends of the court,” RJ Barrett said. “We need to just keep that up.

“We’re playing together, moving the ball. Everybody’s learning each other, figuring each other out. You know when one guy is going to attack, when one guy is going to shoot.”

So much has changed since the Knicks’ previous loss. Grimes became an invaluable cog, Barrett has found his game, and Julius Randle has shown glimpses of his pandemic self. The defense has begun to develop into a strength. The Knicks are 10th in the league in offensive rating (113.4) and ninth in defense (110.8). Once last in the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage, they are up to 25th and climbing at 33.4 percent. They are in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, just two games in the loss column behind the streaking fourth-place Nets.

“The biggest thing I take away [from the streak] is we can do it. We can do it,” Barrett said. “We’ve shown that. So there’s no excuses. We’ve just got to stay together.”