NBA

Hardaway shows he can share scoring load

Carmelo Anthony can’t score 62 points every night, the frontcourt is woefully shorthanded, and the Knicks need to find some scoring from a different source. For a game at least, promising rookie Tim Hardaway Jr. showed some signs he can provide that.

After setting team and Garden scoring records on Friday, Anthony led the Knicks again on Sunday. But Hardaway Jr. chipped in 18 points — his third-highest total this season — to help lift them to a 110-103 win over the Lakers before a sellout crowd of 19,812 at the Garden.

“Tim is ahead of the scale. He’s not your typical rookie,’’ coach Mike Woodson said. “He spent some time in college. His dad has done a hell of a job coaching him over the years. He’s ahead of the game in terms of his individual play. As the years go by and he gets stronger, he’ll be a better defensive player. Offensively he has all the tools to be a really solid player in this league.’’

Hardaway Jr. — the son of five-time All-Star Tim Hardaway — spent three seasons at Michigan before becoming the Knicks’ first-round pick last June. Since the calendar flipped to 2014 he had suffered through a minor dip in an otherwise solid rookie campaign, but he snapped out of that mini-malaise on Sunday.

“My offense feels like it’s fine. It’s just the defense I’m trying to get better at each and every day in practice and the games,’’ Hardaway Jr said. “I’m not worried about it at all. We’ve got a lot of guys on this team that can put the ball in the basket, so that’s the last thing I should be thinking about. [I should be] giving energy to just going out and playing with a sense of urgency.’’

After averaging 9.1 points and hitting 42.2 percent of his 3-pointers in 2013, he had slipped to 6.3 on 31.6 shooting from deep since. But on Sunday against the Lakers, he hit 7 of 12 from the floor and 4 of 5 from behind the arc. That kind of shooting either keeps defenses from collapsing on Anthony or makes them pay when they do.

“It’s important just because everybody is keying in on [Anthony], so it does make it easier on him to find guys and trust guys to hit open shots when he passes the ball. [I] just try to do a great job of getting myself open and making him be able to find us on the perimeter so he can penetrate and dish and we help him out,”said Hardaway Jr., who’s hopeful of being named to the rookie challenge at the All-Star Game.

“I didn’t hear anything about it. I’m just trying to focus on Knick basketball and trying to go out and perform for my team. Yeah, it’d be a nice honor, Not many people get to play in that game or the All-Star Game, so it’d be great just to perform and compete with the best rookies and sophomores.’’