The Knicks are still looking for answers to their defensive woes ahead of the Nikola Jokic test

DENVER – The Knicks’ mile-long defensive woes won’t get any easier on Monday night when they take on potential Triple Crown winner Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets.

The three-time NBA MVP might somehow be having the best statistical season of his 10-year NBA career, as he ranked first in the league in rebounding (13.7 per game) and second in both scoring (30.3). He also ranks third in assists (11.1) per game in his team’s first 16 appearances.

All three of those numbers would be career highs for Jokic, who missed three games earlier this month due to the birth of his son.

The six-time All-Star is also logging a career-best 38.1 minutes per game this season, trailing only Knicks wing Mikal Bridges (38.3) on Saturday.

Bridges was actually used by Tom Thibodeau for Saturday’s final 3-10 loss at Utah and finished with season-low minutes (33), points (seven) and field goal percentage (3-for-15).

Fellow freshman Karl-Anthony Towns, who will take on the primary defensive duties against Jokic, also had a tough game on both ends of the floor. Although KAT grabbed 16 rebounds against the Jazz, the starting center missed eight of nine 3-point attempts and finished the game with a whopping minus-34 defensive rating.

Thibodeau and the players who spoke to the media afterward — Bridges, Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson — lamented the team’s poor defensive performance instead of a spotty shooting night (39.0 percent overall) for their first loss in five games.

“I think we just need to make stops and communicate a little bit more,” said Bridges, who was subbed down the stretch in favor of veteran backup Cam Payne. “I think it’s tough, we’re not the only team, but it’s just human nature that sometimes you miss a shot and you’re a little disappointed and then your voice kind of falls silent.

“So we just have to get over it and still communicate with each other. We can’t miss and then allow it to mess up our defense. If we miss, it must make us even more upset at the other end. We just have to get better at that.”

The 7-foot Towns certainly needs to be better defensively against a player of Jokic’s caliber.

Thibodeau even admitted after Saturday’s game that he considered inserting backup Jericho Sims at center in the fourth quarter after he was a plus-19 nine minutes earlier in the game, including part of the 17-0 run In the third quarter, the Knicks pulled within two minutes.

The Knicks have clearly sacrificed interior defense following the departure of Isaiah Hartenstein and the recent injury to Mitchell Robinson. The downside is that Towns, a four-time All-Star, leads the team in scoring (26.1 ppg) and rebounding (12.5) in 15 appearances.

Still, through Saturday, the Knicks (9-7) ranked 21st in the NBA in defensive rating with 115.7 points allowed per 100 possessions, which Hart called a “recipe for disaster” on Saturday night.

“We’re just not playing well enough,” said Hart, who was Utah’s worst team at minus-37. “We’re not physical enough. We don’t put enough pressure on the ball, including me.

“We have to find out. We can’t just be an attacking team, and that’s what we were in the first (16) games. And when you have games like that where you don’t shoot well and you don’t get along offensively, it looks bad.”

Jokic, 29, could become the first player in NBA history to lead the league in both assists and rebounds per game in the same season. Wilt Chamberlain led the league in total boards and assists in 1967–68, but trailed Oscar Robertson in assists per game.