Jalen Brunson put it bluntly.

“It’s a new year,” he said after the Knicks were blown out by the Pistons on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.

With the loss, the Knicks officially were swept by Detroit in their three regular-season matchups.

The Pistons are running away at the top of the Eastern Conference, and it’s very likely the Knicks will have to go through them in the postseason — whether in the conference final or the second round, if the Knicks drop to the four seed or worse — in order to satisfy their mandate of reaching the NBA Finals.