"Chris Duhon needs a rest. Just a few minutes off here and there, not a few days.

These days, though, that isn't easy - particularly today, when he and the Knicks face the Pistons in a Garden nooner - in which he'll spend a good portion of his time chasing Allen Iverson.

If Nate Robinson can play without pain one of these days (although maybe not today) from his lingering groin strain, then Mike D'Antoni has a far more capable backup at the point than the current one: shoot-first journeyman Anthony Roberson.

Or if the Stephon Marbury soap opera ends and/or if Cuttino Mobley's heart issue is resolved, the Knicks could open up a roster spot to trade for someone such as Portland's Sergio Rodriguez or Memphis' Kyle Lowry or Javaris Crittenton.

Until any of that happens, though, a player who never averaged 30 minutes in his four seasons with the Bulls finds himself grinding out 40-plus per night, something he's done in nine of his last 11 games with the Knicks' backcourt in flux.

"If we can get him down to 35 [minutes], I'd think he'd be OK," D'Antoni said Saturday following a light practice.

"Forty-three, 44 is too many right now."

"I'm starting to get used to it," Duhon said.

"I can't think about it because if I'm trying to pace myself, I can't be the best that I can be."

Although he won't admit it, the wear and tear started to show last week when, following games against Golden State and Portland in which he delivered 35 assists and committed only four turnovers, he turned it over six and seven times in Cleveland and Atlanta while handing out just 12 assists.

"It's easy for me to say he's wearing down," D'Antoni said of those numbers.

"It could be he just screwed up."

Whatever the case, he could use the kind of help he got when Robinson was healthy and before Jamal Crawford and Mardy Collins were traded.

Marbury, of course, would be a logical option, but D'Antoni says that's not happening.

So what D'Antoni calls "a perfect storm" basically has left Duhon on an island, although the Knicks' coach did say Saturday, without offering specifics, "That's a concern I think we'll address."

Except, the Knicks don't have the salaries that match up with the likes of Rodriguez (who's asked for a trade), Lowry and Crittendon, although David Lee comes close.

But it's unlikely the Knicks would spend him for just a backup point guard unless the deal is expanded beyond a one-for-one.

The same would be true for any deal with a team willing to take Malik Rose's expiring $7.6 million contract.

Thus, for the moment, Duhon plays on.

"He does a lot," D'Antoni said of Duhon."