Kevin Knox and the Knicks somehow outlasted the team David Fizdale said currently features the best player in the NBA.

Fizdale slapped that heady label Saturday on do-it-all Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, but the Knicks received several eye-opening performances from their youthful core to pull off the most exhilarating win of the season, 136-134 in overtime over the Bucks at the Garden.

“The thing I was most proud of was we got blown out in Philly [on Wednesday] — they just literally embarrassed us,” Fizdale said. “One thing about our kids, we came back in the gym the next day, they didn’t hang their heads, they didn’t doubt, they didn’t make excuses. They just got back to work and tried to get better.”

Knox certainly responded to recent criticisms with his best shooting performance of the season, sinking 5-of-12 3-point attempts for a career-high 26 points in 38 minutes, including 19 after halftime. Emmanuel Mudiay scored 28 and Damyean Dotson added 21 off the bench for the Knicks, who will face Washington on Monday.

“We’ve been competing a lot, and tonight, we just kept playing, fighting and competing as a team,” Knox said. “The crowd was in it all night, down 16 [points in the third quarter], and I didn’t see nobody leaving. The crowd started chanting, ‘Defense,’ and as a player on the court, you love to hear that. It felt good to be out there.”

One day earlier, Fizdale had stood up for the 19-year-old Knox and second-year guard Frank Ntilikina (who did not play Saturday), defending the team’s two most recent first-round picks over criticism from anonymous scouts and NBA personnel in a Post report earlier this week.

Of course, Antetokounmpo averaged just 6.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in 77 appearances as a rookie in 2013. That’s a far cry from the MVP-caliber numbers the 6-foot-11 dynamo is putting up now at age 23, including 33 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists Saturday night.

Before the game, Fizdale went so far as to refer to the Greek Freak — not LeBron James or others — as the game’s top player. Afterward, he labeled him the league MVP.

Still, led by big men Noah Vonleh and rookie Mitchell Robinson, the Knicks appeared game for a battle with Antetokounmpo from the start.

The Bucks star actually had a quiet first quarter with just four points, and the Knicks jumped out to a 17-10 lead, highlighted by Mario Hezonja outracing him for a dunk and standing over him while motioning his arms to implore the crowd to make noise.

Antetokounmpo responded with a coast-to-coast left-handed stuff over Vonleh, following it up with a hard shoulder bump on the Knicks forward. He then netted eight points in the second quarter, fronting the Bucks to a 13-point cushion midway through the period.

The Knicks took a brief lead in the fourth yet fell behind by 17 and still trailed 119-110 with four minutes remaining. Mudiay netted nine points in the final 3:01 of regulation, including the tying 3-ball with 24.1 ticks left on the clock.

Antetokounmpo then missed the rim on a potential game-winning jumper as the shot clock expired, forcing overtime.

“One thing about our team is we’re always going to fight. We don’t play the scoreboard,” Mudiay said. “That’s one thing coach always preaches on, play until the fat lady sings and that’s the buzzer, so that’s how we move. That’s the main thing we’re trying to do.”

Mudiay drained a pair of 3-pointers for the Knicks’ first six points of the extra session, and Dotson sank his fifth trey of the game with 1:09 left for a 135-134 advantage. After Mudiay made one of two free throws, Robinson blocked Bledsoe’s drive before Brook Lopez missed two free throws, the second intentionally, with 1.2 seconds remaining.

“We’ve definitely made a step in winning close games,” Fizdale said. “We have our lulls sometimes in particular games still where it’s that chunk of the game where it’s just like, ‘Where are we?’… But again our guys just find a way to regroup and dig in and they just start chopping away again. I’m just proud of their effort.”