NBA

Knicks centers Chandler, Camby ready despite nagging injuries

Marcus Camby

Marcus Camby (Bill Kostroun)

VETERAN’S DAY: Tyson Chandler, who suffered a bruised left knee Oct. 24 against the Nets, and Marcus Camby are expected to be available for tomorrow night’s opener against the Heat at the Garden. (Paul J. Bereswill)

VETERAN’S DAY: Tyson Chandler, who suffered a bruised left knee Oct. 24 against the Nets, and Marcus Camby (inset) are expected to be available for tomorrow night’s opener against the Heat at the Garden. (Paul J. Bereswill; Bill Kostroun (inset))

Postponing tonight’s game at Barclays Center has given the Knicks more time to get healthy before their season opener.

Even before yesterday’s announcement by Mayor Bloomberg that tonight’s scheduled game against the Nets at the brand new arena was postponed, Tyson Chandler (left knee bone bruise) said he was ready to go after participating in a full-contact practice. And Marcus Camby (left calf strain) made the surprise announcement he would be good to go as well.

“I felt good for the most part,” Camby said. “It will be up to coach how he uses me, but I’ll be available.”

Now that the Knicks have another full day before the season begins, scheduled to be tomorrow night against the Heat at the Garden, they should have Chandler and Camby suited up and prepared to play against the defending NBA champions.

Neither Chandler nor Camby is 100 percent, but both are getting closer, coach Mike Woodson said. Chandler, who injured the knee in the team’s preseason finale against the Nets on Oct. 24 after a collision with the Gerald Wallace, was active in practice yesterday, even throwing down a reverse dunk at one point.

Chandler’s value is on the defensive end protecting the basket — an important role against LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Heat.

“Tyson’s fine, Tyson’s a trouper,” Woodson said. “He’s a major piece of what we do, playing the center spot and plugging up some of our holes from a defensive standpoint.”

Chandler was in a jovial mood yesterday, asking reporters what they were dressing up as for Halloween, and saying he was “ready to rock,” before word circulated the Nets game was postponed.

“I feel pretty good, not 100 percent, but I felt all right [yesterday],” he said. “I played in contact today, not as explosive as I’m normally out there and [not as] fast, but good enough to give my team something and I feel good enough to protect myself.”

Camby was likewise upbeat after going through his first full practice. Woodson played down the odds of the veteran playing, saying he needed to see how he felt before making a decision.

“He’s got to go home and sleep on this practice, see how he feels when he gets up in the morning,” Woodson said.

It would behoove the Knicks to get healthy. They have three games in four days — after the contest with Miami, the Knicks have a home-and-home Sunday and Monday with the 76ers — and are already thin up front with Amar’e Stoudemire out six-to-eight weeks and scheduled to undergo knee surgery.

“That’s a difficult thing, especially for myself being banged up,” Chandler said of the busy opening week.

The Knicks are getting closer to looking similar to the team general manager Glen Grunwald envisioned after his busy offseason, Stoudemire’s absence notwithstanding. Rasheed Wallace has a handful of practices under his belt and the backcourt is mostly injury-free now that Ronnie Brewer has returned from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

The washboard in the Knicks media room has more white on it, which wasn’t the case recently. Only Iman Shumpert (torn left ACL suffered in the playoffs) and Stoudemire (ruptured popliteal cyst in left knee) are listed, quite the dichotomy from a few weeks back when there were up to six players and their corresponding injuries written in magic marker on the board.

It’s perfect timing with the Heat coming to town tomorrow for the expected start of the season.