Lance Thomas led the way with his play on defense Sunday as the Knicks rallied from down big to beat the Pacers.

On Tuesday, against the Hornets, he did more of the same — and he also rallied his team with his words in a 118-113 win over Charlotte. After the Knicks had surrendered 69 points before halftime, their highest yield in a half this season, Thomas felt compelled to speak.

“At the half, Lance gave us a good speech: ‘We got to lock in there. We can’t allow that to happen.’ Our starters got us off to a really good start, and we kind of carried the way,” Doug McDermott said.

Just part of the job description, Thomas said.

“We needed to step it up. We gave up 41 in the first quarter which was unacceptable. And in order for us to win the game we can’t do that,” he said. “I challenged guys who I know can do better and we had a lot better effort in the second half and we took off.”

After coming back from 19 down Sunday and 15 down Tuesday, the Knicks have rallied from at least 15 points behind in back-to-back games for the first time since Dec. 18, 2006 against the Jazz and Dec. 20, 2006 versus the Hornets.

Kristaps Porzingis, the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week, has enjoyed the greatest individual 10-game start in Knicks history with 300 points. That topped the 295 put up in 1984-85 by Bernard King, who was courtside Tuesday.

“That’s an honor that I’m able to do this in the first 10 games of the season,” Porzingis said. “I had no idea it was a record or something like that. The sweetest thing for us, the best thing for us will be to make the playoffs. This means nothing. … If we can keep winning and I’ll keep doing what I have to do, then the real reward will come.”

Another game, another opponent raving about Porzingis.

Hornets coach Steve Clifford addressed championship makeup, pointing out that in the past two decades or so in the NBA, every title team had a player like Porzingis.

“You can’t guard him one-on-one,” Clifford said. “He has a variety of ways he can get to his shots and particularly in the more meaningful games — just like [Sunday against the Pacers], game on the line, other guys made big shots but it comes from a lot of it how much attention you have to pay to him.”

Clifford added there have been exceptions to title teams having a player like Porzingis.

“There’s only a few guys like that,” he said. “In my time in the league there’s only been one team that’s won a championship without an offensive superstar that you can’t guard one-on-one that was the Larry Brown’s Detroit teams.”

But those Pistons still were loaded.

“They had four All-Stars and by the numbers, they were the most dominant defensive team in the last 20 years so they did it a different way,” Clifford said.

Hornets center Dwight Howard was fined $25,000 by the NBA Tuesday for making an obscene gesture toward a fan in the second quarter of Sunday’s loss at Minnesota. … The Knicks are back at it Wednesday night in Orlando, Fla., against the Magic. … The Hornets still were without Nicolas Batum, who injured his elbow in preseason.