Knicks fired up to catch 76ers

The Knicks boarded the Amtrak for Philadelphia Tuesday night beaming with confidence after their fourth straight win and believing they can catch and surpass the Atlantic Division-leading 76ers.

A Knicks' win not only would cut Philadelphia's lead over them to three but also would give them the tiebreaker. They play only three times this season and they split the first two games.

"That's been our goal since the beginning of the season, to win our division," Tyson Chandler said. "We kind of fell out of that race and now we're putting ourselves right back in the mix of things. Now we've got to seize the moment."

The 76ers dominated 10 days ago at the Garden, but the Knicks are a different team and sound as if they're driven to prove it Wednesday night. "This is a very important game for us," Carmelo Anthony said.

"Absolutely, always been our goal. There's no reason for us not to be thinking about that right now."

Lin impressive again

For all the talk that Jeremy Lin would play a lesser role under Mike Woodson, the young point guard had a second straight strong game. He had 18 points, while taking only 10 shots, and 10 assists.

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"I just tried to be aggressive," Lin said. "I was trying to put pressure on the defense."

Woodson stressed that Lin's role wouldn't be de-emphasized, but just different than when Linsanity was running wild.

"You kind of got to have two games," Woodson said. "You got to have coach's game and you have to have your game as well. Coach's game to me for a point guard is to involve everybody on the floor and still be able to do your thing as well.

"I'm not clamping him. I want him to continue to flow and do the things he was doing during that stretch and understand he's got other guys on the floor that he's got to figure out how to get in the game as well."

Davis sits out again

Baron Davis (hamstring) missed his second straight game. Woodson hopes he can play Wednesday night.