When Allan Houston decided late last month that he could not continue to play if he wanted his arthroscopically repaired right knee to heal, he pointed to the Knicks' game on Tuesday night against the Detroit Pistons as the date of his return.

On and off the court, the Knicks have moved on, working through practices, achieving surprising victories, trading more players. And Houston has rested, waiting from the sideline for the chance to come back and help.

But his projected timetable has stalled. Houston is still not practicing and he is not sure when he will.

"I want to make sure I'm ready," said Houston, who last played on Jan. 27. He is eligible to come off the injured list on Tuesday, but he will not.

"I've played with it being injured and with it being sore and with it being painful for a long time," he said of his knee, "and I don't want to go back and do that again. I want to make sure it's strengthened, and I want to make sure it's ready.

"I'm not going to put a timetable on it. I know it has continued to get better over the last two weeks. I kind of started from below ground, and I kind of moved to ground level, and now I'm continuing to move up."

"I look at the progress, things I can do that I couldn't do two weeks ago, and I'm encouraged," he said, adding that he wished he had taken this stance in December, when he rushed back to play. "That's what I wish I could have done. But I didn't know.

"All I've known how to do is play with the condition it was in, partly because I didn't know if it was going to get better or not. It's not feeling like I want it to or feeling great yet, but I know it's going to get better because of what I've done in the last two weeks."

Isiah Thomas, the Knicks' president, said the team would be patient. "I think until we can get him healthy we are not pressuring anyone to get out on the floor and ruin their careers," Thomas said. "I've watched a lot of players try to come back when they're not healthy and just blow up, blow a knee out. These guys, they deserve the care. This is how they earn a living."

But asked if he thought that this was a short-term problem, Thomas added: "I don't know. That's up to the doctor and up to Allan. Whenever he's ready to come back and play we definitely welcome him back, but we want him healthy."