Wednesday’s Knicks practice wasn’t up to coach Mike Brown’s standard. 

And he let them know — sending a pointed message to the bench players and those battling to earn the last roster spot, in particular. 

“I specifically went down the line talking about Jalen [Brunson], Mikal [Bridges], OG [Anunoby], KAT [Karl-Anthony Towns] and Josh [Hart],” Brown said after Wednesday’s practice. “I said, ‘Those five, they gonna play. If they do something wrong, I’m gonna get on them and we’re gonna figure it out, but they still gonna play.’

“I said, ‘Everybody else in this gym, you fighting. You fighting either to make the team or you fighting for minutes.’ I said, ‘Look around. This is not just because we won last year. This has nothing to do with last year’s team. Those five guys are the same. But everybody — this is a new year, a new team. We gotta look forward. Every day, it’s a competition.’ 

“We weren’t practicing well, and I said, ‘We gonna practice like that, you gonna see at the end of the day, it’s not gonna be in your favor. We should be pushing each other to get better while competing for minutes and or to make the team.’ ” 

Avoiding complacency after winning a championship is something the Knicks have spoken extensively about throughout training camp. It seems they needed a reminder. 

Brown had already called out a lack of physicality during the 120-97 loss to the 76ers in the preseason opener in Philadelphia on Monday. Clearly, he’s trying to nip a lack of intensity in the bud. 

“I think throughout the year, we’re gonna have our ups and downs,” Jordan Clarkson — who is battling for minutes off the bench — said of Wednesday’s practice. “The first week, second week of training camp, we’ll have days like that, but we just don’t want to get complacent at all. If we continue to try to win every single day, we try to compete every single day — for us [during] training camp, we just wanna pick up the level and be ready for the home opener in two weeks and get it rolling for the regular season.

“We just wanted to pick the energy up, keep continuing to play at a high level and pick the physicality up. I think that was a big thing that he said from last game.” 

The message was well received — and can serve as an early lesson. 

“I think that’s what makes coach a great coach, just holding us accountable,” Bridges said. “It can be human nature to relax a little bit — on both sides, anybody that works in the building, as a player, as a coach, as a fan, you can relax after having a lot of success.

“Those lapses where we might get a little human nature in us, where we play a game and have a little day in between and we’re kind of maybe sometimes going through the motions, it was great for coach to do that to us because the thing about us, we’re all competitors and we all want to win. So as soon as coach says something like that, none of us are going to back down and be like, ‘Whatever.’ We’re gonna pick it up and keep fighting and get better. So, very appreciative.”