"The Knicks are primed and ready for Christmas — if you're talking about Carmelo, Amar'e and the gang sitting in front of the tree and opening gifts.

But as for playing the Celtics in the season-opener at the Garden, on national TV, that's an entirely different matter.

"It's early in preseason," Mike D'Antoni said after his team's less-than-puslating 92-83 win over the Nets on Saturday.

Actually, the Knicks reached the midway point of their two-game preseason.

"Yeah, that's not pretty," D'Antoni said, grabbing a piece of postgame pizza in the locker room.

The Knicks are not a title contender, no matter how many sound bites D'Antoni delivers with the Garden-approved line of you-know-what. Judging from his comments on local radio on Friday, ticket sales must be slow."