NEW YORK – Close your eyes, and imagine the Knicks in a meaningful basketball game. Not just meaningful to Wilson Chandler and David Lee, and the rest of their younger players, but meaningful in the sense that fan support would create a playoff atmosphere.

Instead, it was Juan Carlos Navarro, the Memphis Grizzlies’ heralded rookie from Spain, who created the loudest buzz inside the Garden on a blistery Friday evening. The 6’3” guard starred with 17 points, including four three-pointers, as the visitors won, 120-106, before a capacity crowd of 19,763.

The sellout crowd was New York’s fourth straight and, despite their poor record, they have filled MSG a staggering 17 times.

It has been a while -too long, in fact- when mid-March mattered for the Knicks. It is a damn shame when the only relevant basketball inside the Garden during this time of the year pertains to the Big East and PSAL championships.

On this night, Navarro -playing here for the very first time- evoked cheers at every turn.

Memphis [16-51], snapping an 18-game road-losing streak, won for just the fifth time away from the FedEx Forum. New York [19-49], which never led, lost for the 23rd time at home; for the first time since 1986, they have dropped six straight games at the Garden. This was also their 10th wire-to-wire loss, and they have yet to beat the Southwest Division in eight attempts.

“It is safe to say,” a shell-shocked Isiah Thomas said afterward, “that this is, definitely, a growing and learning experience for me. This is a very tough time.”

Mike Miller merely led all scorers with 34 points, including a crisp seven-for-11 from beyond the arc. Miller had entered the contest having drained 43% of his treys, which was 13th best in the league.

Rudy Gay, an emerging star, finished with 24 points and seven rebounds, and hit all eight of his free throws. Mike Conley and Harim Warrick contributed 11 points apiece; Warrick, who has benefited greatly from Pau Gasol’s move to the Lakers, led all rebounders with 10, and Conley led all playmakers with six assists.

Jamal Crawford topped New York with 22 points and five assists. Nate Robinson offered 18 points and five steals. Chandler [a career-high 17 points] and Lee [16] each had seven boards. Crawford’s five three-point attempts pushed him to 404, fourth highest in the league.

The Grizzlies ran the Knicks ragged in the opening 24 minutes with a 69-point blitz, and entered intermission with a 19-point edge. The 72 first-half points scored by Philadelphia on February 20 still represent the most by an opposing team.

Still, New York, by virtue of a 40-point third quarter, managed to catch Memphis at 90-all. During that run, they ran off 18 consecutive points over the first 5:34 of the stanza. Except that they couldn’t continue their surge and, subsequently, faltered during the Grizzlies’ fourth quarter siege.

Clearly, the game’s biggest play was Navarro’s behind-the-back pass, leading to a Warrick jam that produced a 94-90 lead.

Navarro, among the leaders in scoring and three-point field goal efficiency, is just one of two Memphis rookies worth watching. The other is Mike Conley, the magnificent point guard from Ohio State. The tandem average an astonishing 52 minutes between them.

By contrast, Chandler –the No. 23 pick of the 2007 Draft- has watched most of the season from the bench. He has played just 21 of 67 games, and averaged just 14.4 minutes of game action. On 46 occasions, he was either a DNP-Coach’s Decision, or on the Inactive List.

At the time of his NBA debut, in Phoenix on November 13, the Knicks had already lost three of their first five games. By December 14, they would be 10 games under .500. With inquiring minds asking for Chandler on February 4, with New York already 20 games below .500, Thomas chose to sit him for a 12th consecutive game.

Chandler hit just 11% of his shots [1-of-9] in a loss to Atlanta on March 16, before answering with 15 points, and eight boards, at Indiana the following evening.

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