"Some guards are point guards, Mike D'Antoni believes.

Yet, Nate Robinson is a "points guard," he said

Thus, it's back to square one, or square whatever for a 19-31 team the Knicks' coach admits is "getting to the end of the rope" in terms of making something of this season other than a trip for Utah to Secaucus for the draft lottery - the result of the 2004 trade for another point/points guard, Stephon Marbury.

Now, the guard who eventually replaced Marbury at the point, Chris Duhon, gets his job back tonight from Robinson when the Knicks face struggling Sacramento in the final game before the All-Star break.

He might have gotten it back, anyhow, for Robinson is questionable with a groin injury that's yet to knock him out of Saturday's All-Star slam-dunk contest.

That's Robinson's call, D'Antoni said, but the coach's call is back to Duhon, who came off the bench the past two games, both losses, while the littlest Knick ran the offense.

"He's just better as an off-guard than he is at point guard," D'Antoni said. "I think he understands that and I think the team functions better with a true point."

It functioned best, in fact, in December, when Robinson sat out 14 straight games. But after the Knicks fell behind by 20 points at the end of the first quarter Saturday in Cleveland (mostly LeBron James' doing) with Robinson at the point, then stormed back to within three with Robinson scoring 14 straight points at two-guard, with Duhon at the point, the die was re-cast."