If Alonzo Mourning were as careful with the basketball as he is about giving the Knicks credit for their 91-83 victory over Miami yesterday at the Garden, the Heat might be headed home with a 3-1 series lead.

Instead, Mourning turned over the ball nine times – more than half of his team’s 17 that led to 28 Knicks’ points – and the series is tied at 2-2 with Game 5 set for Wednesday night in Miami.

As for credit to the Knicks for their must-win yesterday, Mourning would have – and give – none of it, instead insisting that the Heat gave the game away.

“We constantly gave them gifts,” Mourning insisted after the game. “We kept giving them more and more opportunities to win. Overall, we gave them the game with our careless mistakes.”

Mourning, who should have used the word “I” instead of “we” in that last quote, then dished out a read-between-the-lines criticism of the officiating in the game. For the second consecutive game, he was called for five fouls, and yesterday he added two three-second violations to the mix.

“Those three seconds they called … hey, they were counting kind of fast,” Mourning said. “But that’s the way they were calling the game, like a few times when I got stripped [and thought I was fouled].”

To his credit, Mourning, who scored a game-high 27 points and had 14 rebounds, did criticize his own play, saying, “I touch the ball a lot and I’ve got to make plays. Nine turnovers is not acceptable at all. I missed free throws down the stretch [three in the last 3:39]. That’s unacceptable. I’ve got to make better decisions in order for us to win.”

Mourning then lamented the inconsistent play of his team, dating back to last year, and wondered aloud if it might cost Miami its season.

“It’s been up and down for us,” Mourning said. “It’s reminiscent of last year, like here we go again, back and forth. Why can’t we get to a level of consistency? It’s always come down to a dogfight, a wire-to-wire game. The difference in this series is going to be whichever team establishes that consistency. I hope we get there before they do.

“It’s upsetting to come to this point and know we’ve been down this road before and just not broken through somewhere.”