Jalen Brunson pours in 55 points in Knicks' come-from-behind OT win over Wizards

This is why you call him "captain." Because when you call on the captain, he delivers.

And this is why you don’t count the Knicks out after three quarters — or even after four. Because all their high-powered offense needs is a moment to blow a game open.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. And if there’s a way, the Knicks will find it.

Saturday night’s 136-132 overtime victory over the Washington Wizards certainly took some searching.

But in the end, the Knicks found themselves on a seven-game winning streak, remaining the second-hottest team in all of basketball behind the Oklahoma City Thunder after recording their 17th win in their last 21 games.

They wouldn’t have gotten there without a signature performance from Jalen Brunson.

The Knicks’ soon-to-be two-time NBA All-Star put up an all-time performance, hanging 55 points on 18-of-31 shooting from the field and 16-of-17 shooting from the foul line to go with nine assists.

He joined Bernard King as the only other player in Knicks history to log a “double-nickel” 55-point game.

Brunson did not score at all in the second quarter but erupted for 19 third-quarter points, plus another 14 in the fourth before scoring nine of the Knicks’ 17 points in overtime. In the second leg of a back-to-back after a physical and taxing victory over the Orlando Magic on Friday, the Knicks leaned heavily on their team captain.

The Wizards were without their two best players, Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma, but got a massive performance from New York native and Brooklyn’s Bishop Loughlin alumni Justin Champagnie, who finished with 31 points and 10 rebounds on 5-of-6 shooting from 3-point range.

All five Wizards starters scored in double figures, and so did two Washington players off the bench. The Wizards tested a fatigued Knicks defense and nearly came out on top.

“They played hard regardless of who was out there for them and they came ready to play,” Brunson said in his walk-off interview. “We were a step behind until the fourth and found a way to win.”

It was an ugly game, but the standings don’t log game recaps, only wins and losses. The Knicks will take their lessons in victory over defeat.

There were plenty of lessons to go around on Saturday. Chief among those lessons was another early Karl-Anthony Towns bout with foul trouble.

Towns picked up his second foul at the 5:05 mark of the first quarter.

It’s an issue that has predated his arrival in New York and hurt the Knicks in what ultimately was a blowout win over the Orlando Magic on Friday.

The All-Star big man went on to finish with 30 points and 14 rebounds, only recording one more personal foul for the remainder of the game after his first-quarter struggles. But when he does find himself in foul trouble, an already thin Knicks frontcourt awaiting Mitchell Robinson’s return from offseason ankle surgery has its shortcomings magnified.

The Wizards came into the game with the league’s 26th-ranked offense and ranked 29th in 3-point efficiency. They boasted a 5-23 record having won just five games on the season, tying the New Orleans Pelicans for fewest wins in the NBA.

But against the Knicks defense, the Wizards looked like the 2015 Golden State Warriors. They finished with 32 assists, shot 17 of 38 as a team from downtown and 52% from the field as a team.

Their hot shooting, coupled with dead legs from the Knicks starters, forced Brunson into overdrive, but he broke free from a poor free-throw shooting slump to put the Wizards away in the extra period.

“It’s great knowing that I haven’t made a bunch of free throws this year,” he said. “I’ve been terrible. I made them when we needed them.”

The Knicks’ seven-game winning streak moves them above the Cleveland Cavaliers for the second-longest active winning streak in all of basketball. The Western Conference’s No. 1-seeded Thunder made it 10 in a row with a blowout against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday.

The Knicks will return to the Capital One Arena for another matchup against the Wizards on Monday. With a day of rest in-between games, they should put a better foot forward.

And if they don’t, they can rely on the captain to save the day.

They called his number on Saturday, and when they needed him most, Brunson delivered.