For 2 ¹/₂ minutes of the most crucial part of this game, Jalen Brunson wasn’t on the court.

And for most of that time, Brunson stood at the scorer’s table — side-by-side with Josh Hart — waiting to check in as Tom Thibodeau clutched too long to his final timeout.

It was the defining decision of Tuesday’s 106-103 Knicks defeat to the Pistons, confounding as it unfolded as silence hit the Garden crowd. Thibodeau explained it afterwards as, simply, “coach’s decision.”

“A lot goes into it,” he added.