I’m on the horns of a dilemma. And, as you know, dilemma horns are extremely uncomfortable. Even for the dilemma.

I am caught in the “write about games that haven’t been played yet” conundrum. The NBA championships began Thursday night and the Giants’ concluded their four-game series with the Padres as well.

Sadly, this weekly yarn has a deadline of noon Thursday for Friday publication. So please allow for a giant “Never mind” if the Pacers win game one by 25 points or the Giants beat the Padres by the same margin.

I’ll begin with this: I love this series between Indiana and Oklahoma City. To begin with these two teams earned their way to the final and belong there. It’s also an excellent opportunity for the Knicks fans to learn which is closer to the Hudson River, Oklahoma City or Singapore.

It’s an intrinsic behavior that fans who are invested heavily in the hometown team never really see the other team beat their local heroes, they only see their team lose. In New York, that’s ten-fold.

The knee-jerk reaction by ownership: Fire the coach. Tom Thibodeau was a two-time NBA coach of the year, and he got a team that probably wasn’t quite fully baked yet to the NBA Eastern Conference finals. The least that should get him is a vote of confidence looking forward.

What it got Thibodeau was a one-way ticket to someplace else.

Yes, Thibodeau was out-coached by Rick Carlisle of the Pacers. But, Rick Carlisle every year out-coaches about 30 other NBA teams whose coaches are still employed. But, he lives in Indiana. Which, as we all know, is right up the street from Singapore.

May I offer just three words for you Knicks fans: Get over it.

Will the real Giants please stand up? >> I read a headline that appeared on a story in one of the “fan” websites of the San Francisco Giants that read: “The Daniel Johnson Era Has Begun.” Perhaps just a tad bit of hyperbole.

Buster Posey woke up Tuesday morning and finally said to himself, “I believe the batting averages of our players are somewhat anemic.” A quick 911 call to Sacramento was met with a response that was something like “I got nothin’ for you boss.” And that sent the new VP of Baseball Operations off in search of a couple of able bodies who, at the very least looked good in a uniform and might be able to strike an occasional infusion of offense to a team that was hemorrhaging mediocrity.

Enter Dom Smith, Daniel Johnson and Andrew Knizner. Smith exercised his right to free agency after being DFA’d by the New York Yankees while Johnson and Knizner played just 34 games combined at Sacramento.

Johnson, not incidentally, was the River Cats’ leading hitter. And if you’re thinking there’s more offense still to come from Sacramento, the next best hitter with more than 100 at bats, Grant McCray, is hitting .249. And if you’re waiting for the heralded arrival of Marco Luciano, he’s boasting a .209 batting average with nine home runs and 72 strikeouts.

Daniel Johnson had a great debut to start his “era” in San Francisco. He had two hits and made a game-saving catch in the Giants’ come-from-behind 6-5 win over the Padres Wednesday night.

Three months ago, Johnson was in the process of hitting .427 for Durango, a ninth-place team in the Mexican Norte League.

All the while, Giants’ pitching has been just about the best in baseball. And there is more pitching talent in the minor leagues waiting for a chance. Posey’s most recent effort to infuse offensive life to a moribund hitting team may be just a momentary band-aid, but I’ll take it.

Prior to Wednesday’s come-from-behind win against the Padres I had comprised a list of historic bat superstitions that I thought might help the slumping offense. I do not charge for this service, so guys — think about it and take what you will from it.

Boning the bat

Boning the bat (no, don’t even go there), was the art of using a cow femur to rub briskly against the bat in order to compress the wood fiber and make the bat more dense. This practice was frowned upon after farmers’ complaints of an influx of three-legged cows.

Sleeping with your bat >> Riley Green of the Detroit Tigers, whom the Giants may recall having ownage on their pitching staff in the Tigers’ recent sweep of the G’s, is just the most recent of a long line of hitters to sleep with his baseball bats. It seems to be working. Green is hitting .283 with 13 home runs for the league-leading Tigers. No word on where Mrs. Green is sleeping these days.

Licking your bat >> Yasiel Puig, who burst onto the scene with the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 2013, and looked for all the world like a future Hall of Famer, would lick his bat for good luck when he came up to the plate. It worked for a while before stomach splinters and a serious maple habit sent his career spiraling. He now licks bats for the Kiwoom Heroes in the Korean Baseball Organization.

Hey, it’s just a thought.

Somebody else’s bat >> Oakland’s own, the great Willie Stargell, had the superstition of never using a bat with his name on it. He always used someone else’s lumber.

Willie Stargell was a career .282 hitter with 475 home runs. There are bunches of unused bats with his name on them. Note to Giants: Buy them, there’s a ton of unused hits in them.

And, if all else fails, I think Tom Thibodeau can hit a curve ball — and he’s available.

Barry Tompkins is a 40-year network television sportscaster and a San Francisco native. Email him at barrytompkins1@gmail.com.