"You can underline Nate Robinson's banishment as the propeller to this Knicks renaissance, if you wish. But then you would do a disservice to Chris Duhon and Larry Hughes -- the two point guards making this four-game winning streak and giddy 5-1 stretch happen.

For the Knicks, these are heady times, notching their first four-game winning streak of the Mike D'Antoni era. They play in Charlotte on Tuesday, facing Larry Brown, the Knicks coach when the franchise last won four in a row in January 2006.

"We're just having fun out there playing," said Duhon after his fourth-quarter shooting spree enabled the Knicks to score 18 straight points to close out their 113-96 win in New Orleans on Friday. "Once you win one or two in a row, you like the feeling in the locker room and want to continue to have it. Guys are more loose. We're going out and having fun."

And they're doing it -- Nate-free.

"We win as a team, lose as a team," Duhon said. "I don't have any say-so if he plays or not. He just has to hang in there. Eventually we're going to need him because he's such a valuable person on our team."

Though the recently named captain Duhon has emerged from his horrendous slump the past six games, Hughes quietly has filled in as backup point guard with aplomb and no fanfare.

D'Antoni had championed rookie guard Toney Douglas as the impetus for "Nate-Gate," but it's a smokescreen for his personal war with Robinson. Douglas, as well as Robinson, did not play in Friday's sensational comeback win in New Orleans."