"The war of words between Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni and Jordan Hill is on.

D'Antoni got his hackles up before yesterday's Rockets showdown when The Post asked him about ex-Knick Hill's recent remarks. Hill said he couldn't strut his stuff in New York because D'Antoni isn't fond of playing rookies.

"Where does that come from?" D'Antoni said. "Seriously. It's something that cracks me up. I don't play rookies? I don't like to play bad rookies."

Ouch.

Hill wasn't bad yesterday and helped the Rockets beat D'Antoni's Knicks 116-112 at the Garden. Hill was aggressive at the rim, scored on two putbacks that he converted into 3-point plays and finished with 13 points and five rebounds.

He was on the court when the Rockets got back into the game with a 45-point fourth quarter and played good defense down the stretch.

Hill seemed to be displeased at D'Antoni's dig.

"What can I say?" Hill said. "That's him. He's entitled to his own opinion. If that's the way he feels, that's how he feels.

"I'm entitled to my opinion, so I'm just going to go out there and say what I feel.""