In the midst of one of the best starts in franchise history, humbling moments have been few and far between for Jason Kidd and the New York Knicks.

So when one came along Monday night, a 109-96 loss to the Houston Rockets at Madison Square Garden — the team’s first home loss of the season — the Knicks refused to begin making excuses.

"It happens. There’s 41 games played at home, you’re not going to win them all," Jason said. "We can get better and learn from this loss. Now we have to get ready for Brooklyn."

For J-Kidd the loss put a bittersweet taste on a crowning achievement that did not show up on the stat sheet. The game marked Jason’s 1,335th in the NBA, tying Gary Payton for 8th on the All-Time list. He will surpass Payton on Wednesday against the Brooklyn Nets.

While Jason was active for the 20th time this season, the same could not be said for many of his teammates. The Knicks have spent the entire season without one starting forward, Amar’e Stoudemire.

On Monday they played without their other star forward, Carmelo Anthony for just the fourth time this season. Another injury, to Rasheed Wallace, forced New York to roll with just 10 healthy players and rookie Chris Copeland was pushed into the starting lineup.

"With 10 guys, everybody has to play their best game, and tonight we didn’t," Jason told the Daily News. "But two guys were definitely playing well (Copeland and J.R. Smith). So for the future, Cope could now be in that rotation spot."

The Knicks did get 29 points from Copeland and five points with four rebounds, three assists and two steals from J-Kidd. But with little else working in their favor, the odds were stacked against the Knicks from the outset as they put their undefeated record at Madison Square Garden while welcoming Jeremy Lin back to New York.

The Rockets took full advantage of the shorthanded Knickerbockers and jumped all over New York right out of the gate, converting on transition buckets that appeared to come easy. Both Lin and James Harden found easy lanes to the basket, which sunk New York in an early hole. The Rockets outscored the Knicks 27-11 in the second quarter en route to a 56-42 halftime lead.

"We just didn’t execute our game plan. Those guys got some easy baskets early," No. 5 said. "[Lin] was aggressive. It started out with a couple of layups. In this league when you get some easy layups, things start to go your way."


A hot shooting start to the third put the Knicks back in the game, but the Rockets pushed right back (Getty Images).

New York did get hot in the third, trimming the deficit to just five halfway through the quarter. But turnovers — the Knicks had an uncharacteristic 17 on the evening — doomed them and a few late in the third helped Houston produce a 15-0 run to push their lead from five to 20.

"We fought. It was a five-point game," J-Kidd said. "But then we just couldn’t get a shot, we turned the ball over. That’s something that we’ve taken pride in, getting shots, make or miss. But it was like a 15-0 run. Normally that doesn’t happen against us."

That deficit was too large for the Knicks to recover and the Rockets would go on to win behind a combined 50 points from Harden and Lin. Despite their shorthandedness, the Knicks made no excuses and Coach Mike Woodson’s post-game comments were black and white.

"We didn’t play well. It’s just that simple," Woodson said. "They played great and we played awful."

NEXT UP
The Knicks get the chance to bounce back on their home floor Wednesday night against Crosstown foe Brooklyn.

Wednesday’s matchup is the first meeting between the Knicks and the Nets in Madison Square Garden. The season series is currently tied at 1-1, through two games played between the teams in Brooklyn. In their last meeting on December 11th, it was Jason’s heroics — a game-winning three-point shot with 24 seconds to go — that lifted the Knicks over the Nets.

Tip-off from the Garden is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EST and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN.

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