Now that we’ve had more than 24 hours to agonize over the Knicks’ heartbreaking 100–99 loss to Seattle on Tuesday, it’s time to look on the bright side.

I know, I know, the defeat was both torturous and inexcusable. The Knicks made multiple mental errors, missed 14 free throws, and somehow lost one of the most important games of the season to a team that came in with only six road wins.

And in the eye of the storm, once again, was Stephon Marbury. The Knicks’ guard scored 40 points to help rally the team from an 18-point deficit, but his evening will be defined as much by two miscues. First and most obviously, there was the missed free throw with 0.9 seconds left that gave Seattle its margin of victory. But missed free throws happen. Too much on this particular Knicks team, to be sure, but it was Marbury’s only miss of the night and he’s a 76.7% marksman on the year.

So instead of the free throw, longtime Marbury critics will point to the possession before as a defining moment. With the Knicks up by a point and Marbury isolated on the left wing while the shot clock counted down, he opted to pull up for a long 3-pointer off the dribble rather than challenge the defense off the drive. When he missed and a long rebound came out to Seattle’s Ray Allen, it set into motion the play that resulted in Rashard Lewis’s game-winning 3-pointer.

That’s the bad, but let’s make sure it doesn’t overwhelm the good. And the good, in this case, is that the bad decision by Marbury in those final seconds was very much an isolated incident. For most of the Seattle game, we saw Marbury alternate between putting the team on his back with his scoring exploits and choosing spots to get others involved, something for which he hasn’t been renowned in the past.

In short, we saw “Starbury plus” — the same fearless drives to the basket and scoring acumen, minus some of the tendency to overdribble and dominate the ball that has plagued him in the past.

Moreover, it doesn’t seem that this was a one-game fluke. Since the All-Star break, Marbury has put the team on his back as it chases a playoff berth. Tuesday was Marbury’s third straight 30-point effort, his first such stretch in more than two years, and the seventh straight in which he’s pumped in at least 22. Over the seven-game run, he’s averaging 29.1 points and 5.0 assists and shooting an amazing 50.8% on 3-pointers.

This performance lies in stark contrast to his early-season. Marbury shot 38.8% and averaged just 10.1 points a game in the month of November. In fact, he played so poorly that I argued in a December column that he should come off the bench while Crawford and Steve Francis handled the bulk of the backcourt minutes.

Perhaps he was playing with an ankle problem that was worse than he let on, or maybe he just had a serious Larry Brown hangover to work past before he could be his old self again. Whatever the reason, Starbury is most definitely back, as witnessed by his recent surge. He’s doing it while playing under control, too — despite his vastly greater offensive involvement, he’s averaging fewer turnovers since the All-Star Break (2.4) than before it (2.5).

The one play that defined the return of Starbury for me came in the final minute of the Seattle game. With 0:42 left and New York down by two, Marbury dribbled up the left side across halfcourt and sensed that his defender was overplaying to the left and that Seattle’s big men hadn’t turned to see the ball. At that moment his eyes lit up and BAM! — with one quick step he left Seattle’s Earl Watson in the dust, went up toward the basket, drew contact from the late-arriving 7-footer Johan Petro, and converted the basket for a 3-point play that gave the Knicks their only lead of the second half.

The play was vintage Marbury in two respects — the lightning first step going to his right, and the strength to absorb contact from much larger players and still finish in traffic. While his torrid 3-point shooting has helped his numbers of late, Marbury’s bread-and-butter remains the drive. On Tuesday, he showed a gear we weren’t seeing earlier in the season, and it’s one he’s pulled out repeatedly in the past two weeks. In fact, it’s the threat of his extra gear that’s helped clear space for some of the 3-pointers.

As a result, Knicks fans can remain guardedly optimistic about the team’s playoff chances. Now that Indiana has dropped back to the pack, there are five teams chasing three playoff spots in the East. With Miami’s Dwyane Wade out for most of the stretch run, Indiana dropping six straight games, New Jersey facing a very tough schedule, and the Magic in a steady freefall since their hot start to the season, a Knicks playoff berth doesn’t seem implausible even with Crawford out. (By the way: Don’t look now, but the Knicks and Nets face off twice in the season’s final six days — could it be an elimination round?)

If the Knicks do make the postseason, I can guarantee you who will be the guy leading them there. Regardless of the progress that Eddy Curry and David Lee have made this season, Marbury is still the team’s most important player. Especially given the absence of Crawford, the knee problems of Francis, and the renewed back trouble of Quentin Richardson, Marbury is the one who has to create scoring opportunities as the shot clock runs down, break down defenses off the pick-and-roll, and, yes, loosen defenses with his 3-point shooting.

As a result, we can take a glass-half-full approach to Tuesday’s defeat. The Knicks won’t miss 14 free throws every night and ace sixth man Lee will back soon to fortify the second unit. As long as Marbury keeps filling it up and carrying the team on his back, ‘Bockers fans can stay reasonably optimistic about the team’s playoff hopes.