NBA

JONES PERFORMS CPR ON SEASON

THE wrap around the right elbow was already in place, the ice fastened tight with an ace bandage, and now it was time for Roger Hinds, the Knicks’ trainer, to work on Fred Jones’ left shoulder. More ice. More bandages.

“Can I get a few more towels?” Hinds asked someone.

Soon a stack of towels appeared, and Hinds put one over Jones’ back, and as he did that Jones couldn’t help himself any longer and started to chuckle.

“Only one game,” he said, “and I need all this stuff on me.”

It may well have been only one game, may well have been only 17 minutes and 45 seconds worth of playing time, but you could understand why Jones looked as if he’d just been worked over by the young George Foreman. After all, it isn’t easy trying to stand at the end of the abyss, on your tippy-toes, trying to keep an entire season from falling off the cliff by yourself.

Especially when you’re used to playing a few minutes here, a few minutes there.

“You sit, and you wait, and you pray, and you hope that when your opportunity comes you’ll know what to do with it,” Jones said, smiling through a grimace, maybe half an hour after the Knicks had completed a rousing and wholly improbably 91-88 comeback victory over the Bucks at the Garden.

At halftime, with the Knicks already trailing the Bucks by 11 points, the stat sheet contained the five worst letters of a bench player’s life:

DNP-CD. Did Not Play. Coach’s Decision.

It wasn’t until there was 5:45 left in the third quarter that Isiah Thomas finally summoned him, and only then because Stephon Marbury had suffered a spasm in his right shoulder. By now, the Knicks were down 15 and an angry Garden, 800 folks shy of capacity, was prepared to pounce.

“You don’t want to get in because of someone else’s injury, but I have been praying to get out on the floor,” Jones said. “And once I get on the floor, it’s pretty much up to me.”

And in this case, he meant it quite literally. Jones didn’t quite have to carry the load entirely on his own. There was Jamal Crawford and his array of fourth-quarter circus shots (including the one that put the Knicks ahead to stay), and there was David Lee infusing a straight shot of energy late, when they most needed it.

But it was Jones who made the comeback possible, clamping down on Milwaukee’s Michael Redd, limiting him to 2-for-8 shooting in the fourth quarter after he’d made eight of his first 15. It was Jones who made all four of his field goal attempts, notably a three-point play with 5:41 left that withered the Bucks’ lead to two. It was Jones who took over the point for the Knicks, a position he’s played only a handful of times as a pro.

And it was Jones who forced Redd into a terrible shot with 7.9 seconds left in the game, then dashed to the other side of the floor for the game-sealing slam that electrified the Garden one last time. One night after the Knicks looked like they’d flat-lined for good, it was Fred Jones who administered roadside CPR.

“He is such a solid player,” said Crawford, who finished with 25 points. “He doesn’t really have any flaws.”

Only one to speak of, in fact, which is a low profile on a team with some high-maintenance players. On other nights, against other teams, Thomas may have selected Nate Robinson when Marbury’s shoulder started to growl; this time, Robinson kept his warm-ups on the whole time. He was the one who’s final stat line read DNP-CD.

It was Fred Jones’ stat line that didn’t have any flaws.

“When you go through a game like [the 104-59 calamity in Boston Thursday night], you’re awfully down,” he said, adjusting the ice on his elbow. “You’ve got to come back with a big win. And we did that.”

He did that.

michael.vaccaro@nypost.com