MIAMI — Tyson Chandler was the one who saw how much pain Carmelo Anthony was in, who saw the grimace attached to his face all day, who wasn’t fooled by the fact Anthony drilled shot after shot in pregame, looked 100 percent like himself except for the wince every time a basketball hit his bandaged finger.
Chandler is an expert of both the long season and the many bloody accidents that can veer it off course. He knew Melo wanted to play, wanted to will his way through this showcase showdown with the Heat, he heard Melo say, all day, “I’m going to play. I’m going to play.”
And finally had a message for his teammate.
“Don’t play,” Chandler said. “We’ll pick you up.”
RAY HITS 6 OF KNICKS’ 18 TREYS IN STATEMENT WIN VS. HEAT
Chandler, of course, could have no idea how prescient he was, could have little sense of what was to come, which was only the Knicks’ most satisfying victory in years, a 112-92 thumping of the defending champions that will send loud echoes up and down the league, certainly inside the Miami locker room.
“We’re getting there,” Chandler said, “but they’re the champions.”
They’re getting there because every night, it seems, there is a different character waiting to emerge from stage left and seize a moment, seize a game. Wednesday night it was J.R. Smith, making a buzzer beater after missing about 73 shots in a row.
Last night it was Ray Felton — 27 points and seven assists — and Steve Novak — four 3s, 18 points — and Chandler, naturally, 13 points and nine rebounds and defense so fierce you could see the Heat wilt and wane as the night chugged along.
“We moved the ball, we made shots, we defended,” coach Mike Woodson said, almost allowing a smile to crease his face. “It was beautiful to watch.”
It was fascinating to watch, too, because the Knicks quickly have developed a handy habit of shaking off lineup cavities, shrugging off the nightly additions to that segment of their bench devoted to civvies and shoes.
This time it was Anthony, his wounded finger throbbing, the five stitches unable to stanch the ache. News of his absence caused the preame betting line to swell from seven points to 10 in an instant. Which means if you happened to make a phone call and picked the Knicks, you only won your bet by 30 points.
“Every one of us is going to miss some time,” said Jason Kidd, magnificent again in his second game back after his own achy exile, 11 points and four assists and two steals and the general Kidd-ness he brings to every game he plays. “You don’t get extra credit for trying. You still have a job to do.”
Said Chandler: “No Amar’e [Stoudemire]. No [Iman] Shumpert. Now we’ve been missing Marcus Camby. And Melo, too.”
He smiled.
“And look at where we are.”
Look at where they are: a game and a half clear of the entire Eastern Conference, solidly atop the Atlantic Division and, more important, playing with a daily urgency that bespeaks a team that believes it has something to prove every night.
Look at what they did to the Heat, how they shook off a 31-point, 10-rebound, nine-assist burst of brilliance from LeBron James, how they silenced the crowd and even quieted Michael Baiamonte, the insufferable public-address announcer, whose plan always seems to be this when the Heat trail: maybe I can shout the deficit away.
Not this time. Not this game. Not after a third-quarter that produced 37 points and a 10-point lead and seemed straight out of a Mike D’Antoni fantasy — and not after a fourth quarter in which they yielded just 12 points, the kind of defensive dominance that almost — almost — gets that smile to curl on Woodson’s face.
“When you’re making shots, it’s contagious,” Novak said.
“The offense is nice,” Chandler said, “but it’s the defense that’s going to carry us where we want to go.”
On this night you could celebrate anything you wanted, either side of the ball, up and down the roster. Fret if you must about what the return of Stoudemire, Shumpert and — now — Melo might mean for the chemistry that percolates on this team. Or do yourself a favor: trust them. The Knicks obviously know how to adjust to a depleted rotation.
Just think how well they’ll adapt to a full one.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com