Miles McBride showing off 3-point strength as his Knicks role expands

Donte DiVincenzo honestly believed the record he’d set Monday night was about to be erased only 48 hours later.

One game after DiVincenzo had set the Knicks franchise mark with 11 made 3-pointers in Monday’s rout of the Pistons, Miles McBride buried six 3-pointers alone in the Knicks’ 45-point first quarter Wednesday night in Toronto.

The rising third-year guard had nine treys overall when Tom Thibodeau pulled him and the rest of the starters barely midway through the fourth quarter of a season-high 145-101 shellacking of the Raptors.

“I actually was curious. I thought Thibs was going to leave him in there. I actually wanted him to,” DiVincenzo said after the game. “But obviously we were up big.

“I told [McBride] he’s going to have another chance to get it, for sure.”

The player known by the nickname Deuce will get that opportunity if he continues shooting with his recent proficiency from the outside.

DiVincenzo is on the verge of establishing another 3-point franchise record; he enters Friday’s road game against the Spurs two behind Evan Fournier’s single-season mark of 241.

For the season, however, McBride actually leads the Knicks in 3-point shooting percentage at 42.2 percent, ahead of both Jalen Brunson (40.1) and DiVincenzo (40.0).

In 17 games since the All-Star break, that number for McBride has risen to 44.1 percent (41-for-93).

Only three NBA players — Grayson Allen (47.8), Luke Kennard (45.4) and Jrue Holiday (44.5) — had a better percentage for the season through Wednesday’s league action.

“I’m open, shoot it. That’s all I’m thinking about,” McBride said. “Guys are getting me great passes, setting me up right. So, I got to shoot it with confidence.

“Definitely, anytime I put it up in the air, I think it’s going in, so give me some type of space, I’m letting it go.”

That confidence has fueled a drastic improvement and rise for a former second-round pick whose career shooting percentage from deep amid sporadic playing time in his first two NBA seasons was a paltry 28.2.

The 23-year-old McBride wasn’t even a part of the team’s regular playing rotation until midseason, but now it’s hard to imagine the two-way guard not having a significant role, even when the Knicks are at full strength.

He clearly has gained Thibodeau’s trust, averaging 44.3 minutes in his past five appearances.

“I think it’s a good question, like, where does confidence come from? Well, it comes from your work that you put in, it comes from your preparation,” Thibodeau said when asked about McBride. “Then I think when you see the results — and we saw it in practice, the volume of shots and the accuracy of his makes in practice — and then when he came back in training camp, it was clear.

“Now that his role is expanded, he’s got a good rhythm and he can really shoot the ball. And then on top of that, his defense is top of the line. It was elite coming in, and it’s special to watch.”

Offensively, McBride matched a career-high with 29 points (18 in the first quarter) and added seven assists in 40 minutes against the Raptors.

His six 3-pointers in the first quarter tied John Starks (1998) and Quentin Richardson (2008) for the most by a Knick in one quarter.

But McBride insisted he wasn’t thinking about DiVincenzo’s two-day-old team record for a single game.

“I just wanted to win the game, honestly. That’s all I was caring about,” McBride said. “I’ve always trusted my work.

“I know people said numbers didn’t show it, results didn’t show it. But I always trusted it, trusted in God to go out there and show what I was capable of.”

McBride’s recent emergence has been among the keys to the Knicks (44-28) winning seven of their past eight games to take over the No. 3 playoff position in the Eastern Conference with 10 games remaining.

“It’s not our focal point, but we definitely have an eye on it,” McBride said. “It’s the league, you’re always going to understand it, that you want to move up in the standings.

“I think whatever we can do to continue to win games and get in the best position so we can have home-court advantage, that’s the biggest thing.”