NEW ORLEANS — Friday in Atlanta the Knicks celebrated their first win of the season, but did it with a disclaimer, unhappy with the three turnovers in the final 71 seconds that nearly allowed the game to get away.

The correction came Saturday, but not the way they intended. The Knicks made the final 71 seconds a moot point by turning the ball over with sloppy play almost from the opening tip. And when they weren’t turning it over they were clanking shots, watching Zion Williamson weave his way to the rim and arguing with the officials.

The Knicks never led, struggling through a frustrating 96-87 defeat to fall to 1-2 on the season with one more stop on this three-game road trip.

Could you chalk this up to fatigue, playing this game less than 24 hours after the win in Atlanta? The Knicks didn’t sit any of their rotation players — only limiting their minutes when Tom Thibodeau finally pulled the plug on this with 4:31 left, beginning to empty his bench.

“Yeah, less than 24 hours and a time change is kind of weird,” RJ Barrett said. “Especially for the beginning of the season, but of course a little bit of fatigue today, but that’s not really any excuse at the end of the day. When we come out here we got to give our best effort and play our best game. I think we played hard, we played together, we didn’t go away. Every time they’d go up, we’d make a run, cut it to six. So I think we played hard, but they got the better of us today.”

The numbers would make a case for fatigue with Jalen Brunson shooting 4-for-14, 1-for-5 from beyond the arc and Julius Randle struggling through a 4-for-15 and 0-for-5 on three-pointers game. Quentin Grimes went 2-for-9, missing 5 of 6 attempts from three.

RJ Barrett led the Knicks with 18 points on 7-for-16 shooting. Mitchell Robinson was the only starter to shoot at least 50% from the field, converting 4 of 8 shots. As a team the Knicks shot just 7-for-37 from beyond the arc.

And there were turnovers. The Knicks lost the ball 19 times. Randle was the worst culprit with eight, one night after he’d recorded nine assists as the Knicks moved the ball like a finely-tuned machine for most of the night.

“I mean, I hate to admit it — actually I’m not going to admit it,” Brunson said. “I’ve just got to be better, no matter what the situation is.”

“We knew that would be a challenge and it was coming off the back to back in less than 24 hours,” Thibodeau said. “But I like the way we fought. We got it back to six. We had a shot, and then I think they went 8-1 to start the fourth.”

The Knicks came out of the locker room at halftime with a far different fire and quickly cut the lead to 63-56. But Williamson, who finished with 24 points on 12-for-17 shooting, took Randle to the rim and then the next time down isolated and attacked Mitchell Robinson, scoring on both layups and pushing New Orleans’ lead back to 11 and prompting a Knicks timeout.

Trailing by as many as 19 in the second quarter and 18 early in the third, the Knicks got within six late in the third quarter. But with 2.3 seconds left in the third Brandon Ingram, who led all scorers with 26, hit a tough jumper over Josh Hart, drawing a foul and converting he free throw for a nine-point edge entering the final quarter.

The Knicks only point in the first 4:27 of the final quarter came on an Isaiah Hartenstein free throw as they misfired on their first eight field-goal attempts and turned it over three times before Brunson finally converted a layup with 7:32 left.

The Knicks had more turnovers than field goals in the first quarter, giving the ball away seven times while shooting just 6-for-21, and misfiring on all eight attempts beyond the arc.

Brunson, who had set a personal record with eight three-pointers Friday, missed all four of his shots in the first quarter.

“I think that’s why we have 82 games,” Barrett said. “Get everybody back in rhythm, everybody back in the flow. Make the mistakes early, all teams are doing that. Nobody’s perfect and nobody’s in their perfect stride yet. So I think we just got to keep learning and growing each day and even when we’re having