Bulls' Rose shows Knicks what star guard does

Kevin Kernan
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One superstar point “card’’ trumps all the Knicks’ stars.

All-Star guard Derrick Rose was spectacular last night, leading the undermanned Bulls to a 105-102 victory over Carmelo Anthony (a fellow East All-Star), Amar’e Stoudemire and the Knicks at the Garden. When Rose was done destroying the Knicks, he talked about his supreme will to win and how much his team hates to lose.

A few minutes after that, he was inthe hallway outside the visiting locker room shaking hands with Yankees manager Joe Girardi and telling Girardi, who grew up in East Peoria, Ill., “Thank you for coming, sir.’’

Neil Miller

PASSING GRADE: Iman Shumpert gets off a good pass to Knicks teammate Landry Fields last night, but Derrick Rose (left) was by far the best guard on the floor, so the Bulls won, 105-102, endangering coach Mike D’Antoni’s job.

All that and a nice guy, too.

The Knicks (8-14) got to see what life is like when you have an incredible point guard on your side. It looks as if Anthony will not be playing with a star point guard until he teams up with Rose (whose Bulls have the best record in the East at 19-6) later this month in Orlando at the All-Star Game.

Rose finished with 32 points and 13 assists. Stoudemire produced a season-high 34 points, but misfired on a critical 3-point try at the top of the arc with 9.3 seconds remaining. Anthony finished with 26 points.

Stoudemire explained what makes Rose so difficult to defend.

“He’s one of those guards that are extremely explosive,’’ Stoudemire said. “It’s really tough to guard him on screen-and-rolls because he is so low to the ground he explodes so well. He makes tough shots.’’

Making tough shots makes all the difference. The Knicks dug themselves a huge hole with a dreadful second quarter, turning the ball over a stunning 11 times in the quarter. Anthony had four of those turnovers and Toney Douglas had two. The Knicks’ bench was horrible, scoring six points for the game — all by Douglas, who nevertheless was out of rhythm. The Bulls’ bench pumped in 25 points.

Rose said this is his mindset and it is not going to change. This is a winner.

“Every time I step on the court, they’re coming at me, but it’s not that, I’m coming at them,’’ he said. “I love it when it’s a challenge like that . . . We hate losing. We have winners on our team. When we lose the next game for sure we know that that team is going to get our all.’’

The Knicks got Rose’s all and could not handle it on their home court. There was much happy talk from the Knicks after the game about positive signs, but the bottom line is this was another loss for a team expected to do much better.

The Knicks’ Achilles’ heel struck once again. You can’t be a contender without a star point guard in the NBA. It’s that simple.

Before the game, coach Mike D’Antoni referred to Rose as “top shelf.’’ Rose was better than that with whirling-dervish drives through the lane or long floaters over the arc of the Knicks’ defense.

The Knicks battled, but it wasn’t enough. These weren’t the Pistons, the team the Knicks beat up Tuesday night.

In the end, with the Knicks trailing by three and coming out of a timeout, Stoudemire took a quick 3 as Joakim Noah had to fight through traffic to play defense. Perhaps Noah couldn’t believe that was the play the Knicks designed.

No matter. Stoudemire had an open look and missed.

“Coach D’Antoni drew up a play and the first thing he said was, ‘If you’re open, shoot it.’ I was open so I shot the ball,’’ Stoudemire said. “I just didn’t make it.’’

Put another “L’’ on the Knicks ledger. Mark it down as a failure for the first back-to-back-to-back test for the Knicks, who play in Boston tonight, then return home to play the Nets tomorrow night.

The point of the matter is, D’Antoni’s Knicks continue to come up short.

kevin.kernan@nypost.com