Perhaps the best indication of what’s important for these Knicks — or what’s most relevant to their status as either contenders or pretenders — was the theme of Wednesday night’s postgame locker room interviews.

New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns explains how nice it felt to hit a couple threes against Memphis and details why Josh Hart should be an All-Star. Plus, Precious Achiuwa explains how his hamstring is feeling after returning from injury in December.

After taking apart two of the hottest teams in the Western Conference, next up for the surging Knicks will be welcoming the challenge of the reigning league MVP. Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who has earned that award in three of the previous four years,