Mike Celizic

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The aging barn known as the Izod Center is maybe half full, and it’s likely that a decent chunk of that crowd paid little or nothing to get in. But now that they’re in the house, the New Jersey Nets are working as hard as they can to get them to come back.

No one in the building, including the players, is looking at this as a real contest whose outcome is worth caring about. It’s early in the preseason schedule, and this is about players showing how much they can score, not how well they can defend.

None of that matters to the Nets’ mascot, who’s standing on a railing, working the crowd as if it’s a playoff game. The mascot’s costume is gray and shaggy and canine. From the front, the big, toothy grin/snarl leaves no question that this is a wolf. But the mascot’s name, printed on the back of his jersey, is Sly Fox — a fox in wolf’s clothing.

Somehow, that makes sense on this night. The mascot isn’t the only one in the building that looks like one thing and claims to be another. There are also the two teams that are scheduled to do preseason battle, the Knicks and the Nets.

Both say they’re looking to get back into the playoffs, a place the Knicks haven’t seen for years and the Nets are one year removed from. But both teams have been slashing payroll with an eye toward clearing plenty of salary cap room for 2010, when LeBron James will head a free-agent class that will also include Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. James is the big prize, and there has been buzz for more than a year about his love of New York and his close friendship with entrepreneur, rap impresario and Nets co-owner Jay-Z.

The Nets got rid of Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson last year, leaving just Vince Carter from when they were a decent team. The Knicks are similarly low in wattage from star players, the offense now expected to be run by point guard Chris Duhon, who has taken over from Stephon Marbury, who has another year on his monumental contract and has fallen to fourth among the guards on the depth chart.

So both teams have some selling to do to their fans, and this was a night for both teams to make the middling crowd in the Izod Center believe that they’ll be worth the price of admission during the coming season.

There’s no real buzz in the building about either team. The fans are curious to see what the new-look, run-and-gun Knicks might become under their new coach, Mike D’Antoni, recently of the Phoenix Suns. And fans of both the Knicks and Nets want to believe that either or both teams have the talent to return to the playoffs.

Underneath the stands, an hour before tipoff, Nets coach Laurence Frank would insist his team would be right in the thick of things. "I think without a doubt," he says about being playoff-caliber team.

After the game, a 114-106 Knicks win gained with the help of 12 crowd-pleasing treys, D’Antoni would echo those sentiments for his own team.

"I’m looking forward to this year," he says without blinking. "I’m looking forward to these guys and seeing how good we can get."

These are the things coaches must say. With the season yet to begin, they're even allowed to believe them. That's what they're paid to do. And both coaches can take hope in knowing their teams are playing in the Eastern Conference, where you don’t need to play even .500 ball to make the postseason.

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But even the East’s lower-tier playoff teams may be too good to be threatened by either the Knicks or the Nets this year. Other than Carter, neither team has an established superstar, and Carter’s motivation has come into question over the years, especially when his team is doing poorly. And as much fun as it is to watch D’Antoni’s Knicks charge up and down the floor, they are a team that is not interested in defense. They’d rather work on offense, where D’Antoni’s  philosophy boils down to this: The open guy takes the shot.

“There’s no pressure on any shot,” says veteran forward and team leader Malik Rose. “If you’re open, take it.”

Asked if the Knicks are a playoff team, Rose says without hesitation, “The playoffs are a definite possibility.”

On Frank’s side of the building, the Nets are working on the dribble-drive offense that has been increasing popular in the NCAA. His new point guard, obtained in the trade that sent Kidd to Dallas, is Devin Harris, a 25-year-old with good quickness and the ability to penetrate and dish.

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