Tom Thibodeau doesn’t believe in favorites and underdogs. The Knicks head coach believes every team is capable of winning on any night. Yes, even against his Knicks, who own one of the league’s largest payrolls courtesy of one of the more stacked starting fives in the NBA. And yes, even the Nets, who own one of the worst records in all of basketball as the Eastern Conference’s 12th seed. Thibodeau believes you can’t get to the NBA without being a great player, that the name on the back of the jersey oftentimes isn’t indicative of the preparation and approach that goes into each game. So it’s fitting his star-studded Knicks team found difficult creating much separation from a Nets organization fully embracing the tank at Barclays Center this season. Handling business isn’t always going to be pretty. It certainly wasn’t in the second leg of a back-to-back after a gritty nine-point victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. But with the Knicks facing one of the strongest remaining schedules in the NBA — and coming off of a stretch of six losses in the span of nine games —  all wins count evenly. The Knicks added another one to the win column to make it two in a row with a 99-95 victory over the Nets in Mikal Bridges’ first game back at Barclays Center on Tuesday. The Knicks built a lead as large as 13 in the third quarter then went on a scoring drought in the final period as the Nets uncorked a massive 15-4 run, holding the Knicks to just one field goal from the 10-minute mark in the fourth until Karl-Anthony Towns broke the seal with a hook shot with just under three minutes left in regulation. And then it was the captain’s time to shine. When the game is on the line, Brunson often dusts off the cape. The star Knicks guard went on a personal 6-2 run to stabilize his team, then Josh Hart found OG Anunoby for a cutting dunk to make it a 97-92 game with under a minute left to play. D’Angelo Russell responded with a pull-up three to make it a two-point game, but after Brooklyn got a stop on Brunson’s attempt at a floater, Cam Johnson missed a deep three that would have put the Nets up one with 12 seconds left on the clock. Towns, who is playing through a right thumb sprain, finished with a team-high 25 points, 16 rebounds and six assists on 11-of-19 shooting from the field.  After his 34-point performance against the Hawks on Monday, Brunson shot 7-of-18 from the field for 17 points but came alive when his team needed it most: when the game was on the line. Bridges finished with 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting from the field against his old team, and Anunoby scored 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the field to go with tough defense on Johnson, who shot an abysmal 6-of-20 from the field for 16 points. The Nets’ lead scorer averaged 19.5 points on 50 percent shooting from the field and 42.6 percent shooting from deep prior to his matchup against Anunoby on Tuesday. The Knicks, of course, have things to clean up. The schedule only gets exponentially more brutal from here on out. And they coughed up four of their first six home games to start the New Year. The home stand will continue through February leading into the 2025 NBA All-Star break, but so will the toughened schedule: The Sacramento Kings visit Madison Square Garden Saturday, followed by a date with Ja Morant and the Western Conference’s second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies next Monday. It’s the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets immediately after. Then the Knicks will see Boston, Indiana and Atlanta for a fourth time this season. The Knicks gave enough to get the job done on Tuesday, and in this business, a win is a win, regardless of how you get there. What the Knicks did against the Nets, however, won’t get the job done against more quality competition. The Knicks are only 1-5 against true NBA title contenders this season.