Carmelo Anthony will play tonight for banged-up Knicks

Carmelo Anthony went through shootaround this morning and is playing tonight despite still feeling some soreness in his strained right groin.

But the Knicks won’t have Jeremy Lin (sore knee), Amar’e Stoudemire (back), Jared Jeffries (knee) and Bill Walker (elbow). J.R. Smith is questionable with an illness and Baron Davis’ hamstring is bothering him but he’s going to start at point guard against the Magic.

Anthony said his groin isn’t as bad as it was last month when he missed seven games, but the Knicks still have to be careful with him. If it worsens, he could sit some games and that’s the last things the Knicks can afford right now.

They began the day two games up on the Bucks for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Stoudemire is out 2-4 weeks the team announced this morning due to the bulging disc in his back.

That’s an upgrade from out indefinitely. But the Knicks still need to stay afloat and make the playoffs so that Stoudemire has a something to come back to whenever he returns in April.

Lin missed his second straight game with the knee soreness. Interim coach Mike Woodson said he’s not sure Lin would play Friday when the Knicks are in Atlanta.

“Don’t know,” Woodson said. “I'm sitting here, I'm being honest with you guys I have no idea who's going to play Friday. I've just got to get through today. “

Woodson also said with Davis not being able to play 30-plus minutes consistently, he’s probably going to have to dust off Toney Douglas.

As for Anthony, he said he still feels pain in his groin when he makes certain moves, such as when he powers up. That’s obviously doesn’t sound good since he does that a lot. He received treatment yesterday, this morning and said he would be getting treatment around the clock today.

Anthony also said if this was a few months ago he might not have played tonight. But the Knicks are in a playoff race and already down two starters so he’s not sitting.

“They would have to sit me down probably,” Anthony said. “I had a groin injury before. It’s nowhere near the first time when I had to sit out six, seven games. I’m out there, getting it moving, cutting, doing some lateral stuff. I’ll be out there. That’s the most important thing.”