A team doesn’t get to the playoffs without a multitude of important moments, and the Knicks certainly had their share in the buildup to Saturday’s playoff opener against the Cavaliers.

The obvious answers are the signing of point guard Jalen Brunson and his vast improvement, in addition to his contribution to helping Julius Randle return to All-Star-caliber play.

And, of course, the backdrop of the first-round series will be the homegrown All-Star who got away last summer: Westchester-born Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell.

Putting those well-documented factors aside for this week’s newsletter, here are five moments that helped propel the Knicks back to the playoffs after last year’s discouraging postseason whiff.

Rotation reduction

There certainly still are those critical of Tim Thibodeau for not utilizing his entire roster, but the Knicks were muddling along at a 10-13 start into early December, never winning or losing more than three in a row over the first 23 games.

Thibodeau already had benched veteran shooting guard Evan Fournier, despite his $18.9 million salary, to elevate Quentin Grimes to the starting lineup after the second-year guard finally got healthy following a training camp foot injury.

Following a defensively disastrous loss to the Mavericks at the Garden on Dec. 3, Thibodeau also benched since-traded wing Cam Reddish and popular veteran Derrick Rose, reducing his rotation from 10 players to nine, essentially for the remainder of the season.

With two more defensively sound second-year players, Deuce McBride and Jericho Sims (for injured Obi Toppin), also gaining valuable playing time, that rotation change propelled the Knicks to an immediate season reset in the form of an eight-game winning streak beginning Dec. 4 against the Cavs.

The Knicks went 37-22 the rest of the way, and it also should be noted Fournier and Rose remained positive with their teammates and ready for whatever scant opportunities they received thereafter.

A Quick fix

It’s easy to forget Sixth Man of the Year candidate Immanuel Quickley got off to a rocky start offensively, shooting 30 percent from 3-point range and averaging 9.4 points over his first 22 games of the season, all off the bench.

Quickley’s season took off during an otherwise disastrous two-game Texas stretch right after Christmas while Brunson was sidelined due to a hip issue — the giveaway loss to Luka Doncic and the Mavericks and another two nights later in San Antonio.

The third-year combo guard started those two games, and notched 15 assists over 51 minutes against the Mavericks before netting 36 points — his career high at the time — against the Spurs.

Quickley ended up starting 21 games, mostly due to injuries to Brunson and RJ Barrett. He averaged 22.6 points, 5.1 assists and 38.6 minutes in those contests, compared to 12.3 points and 2.9 dimes in 25.6 minutes in 60 games coming off the bench.

Thibodeau also frequently lauded Quickley for his defensive improvement over the course of the season. His net rating of 6.2 (point differential per 100 possessions) ranked third on the team behind deadline acquisition Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson.

You gotta have Hart

Speaking of Hart, it’s hard to imagine a midseason pickup having a better impact on this team. The versatile guard was well worth the first-round draft pick (which wound up as No. 23 overall) the Knicks sacrificed to the Trail Blazers, along with Reddish and trade fillers Ryan Arcidiacono and Svi Mykhailiuk.

The Knicks started out with nine straight wins with Hart in the lineup, and finished the regular season 17-8 in Hart’s 25 appearances. Now he begins the first playoff experience of his six-year NBA career.

Despite making only one late start, he still logged 30 minutes per game with the Knicks, and provided a smorgasbord of 10.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.4 steals while shooting 58.6 percent from the floor and 51.9 percent from long distance

Yahtzee!

Looking back, it’s easy to understand Brunson’s viral celebratory reaction on the night his former Villanova championship teammate was acquired (the same night Brunson’s number was retired at his alma mater).

The baseball writer in me also can’t get enough of Hart’s connection to the game through his great-uncle Elston Howard, the legendary former Yankees catcher.

Love that dirty water…

If we’re going to pick one or two signature wins for the Knicks this season, it has to be the two victories they nabbed at TD Garden in Boston in the second half, including one with Brunson sidelined.

On Jan. 26, the Knicks squandered a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter before gutting out the ‘W’ in overtime with Randle sinking two late free throws and Brunson blocking Malcolm Brogdon’s 3-point try at the buzzer.

The Knicks had to play beyond four quarters to edge the Celtics on the road again on March 5. With Brunson out due to a bruised foot, Quickley played 55 minutes and scored 38 in the double-OT decision, the last of a season-best nine consecutive wins to improve to 39-27.

Beat the Heat

Randle missed the final five games after hobbling to the MSG locker room with a sprained left ankle after landing on Miami forward Bam Adebayo’s foot late in the second half of a game two weeks ago. His status still is uncertain ahead of Game 1 in Cleveland.

Without their leading scorer and lone All-Star after intermission, however, the Knicks moved closer to clinching their return to the postseason, pulling out a pivotal 101-92 win that essentially eliminated any chance of sinking into the play-in tournament.

Thibodeau went with a smaller lineup — Quickley, Hart, Grimes, Barrett with backup center Isaiah Hartenstein — for the entire fourth quarter. Brunson had returned that night after missing the previous two games because a sprained right hand, which also caused him to be held out for the final three games of the season as a precaution.

The aforementioned wins in Beantown were representative of the Knicks posting the franchise’s best road record in more than 25 years, finishing the year with a 23-18 mark at the Garden and a 24-17 record away from MSG.

The 24 road wins were one more than Mike Woodson’s 2012-13 playoff squad managed and the franchise’s most since going 26-15 on the road under Jeff Van Gundy in 1996-97.

“That’s why you go through the regular season with a seriousness because you know that down the line it can pay off,” Quickley said Wednesday. “You definitely want to take every game seriously, and we did that on the road this year. We were a really good road team. So we hope it can help us out a lot.”

The Knicks went 1-1 in Cleveland: Brunson’s career-high 48-point outburst fueled the win on March 31. But the Knicks fully expect the atmosphere to be different beginning Saturday night.

“You accept those big games, those nationally televised games, playoff games,” Quickley said. “On the road, it’s just you and 15 other guys, and you got to find a way to get a dub in a hostile environment. That’s what you work hard for in the summer, that’s what you work hard for throughout the year.

“I love big games, I love when the stakes are at their highest, and I think our team embodies that, as far as what we’ve been through all year and what we’ve done throughout the year. We enjoy big games. We like the bright lights. It’ll be fun.”

Want to catch a game? The Knicks schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.

I found it interesting when Mitchell noted, following the final regular-season meeting with the Cavaliers, that the Knicks played at a faster pace with Toppin replacing Randle in the starting lineup.

Toppin averaged 21.8 points with just 3.2 rebounds in his five starts.

If healthy, Randle’s presence on the boards — 10.0 per over 77 games — would help combat the Cavs’ sizable frontcourt, which features two 6-foot-11 starters when healthy in Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.

The guess here is Thibodeau and the Knicks are not going to reveal Randle’s availability for the start of the series until they absolutely have to, probably listing him as questionable right up until minutes before Saturday’s 6 p.m. tipoff.