The Boston Celtics and the New Orleans Pelicans are each off to slow starts.
One will get their first victory when they meet Monday night in New Orleans.
The Celtics have lost their first three games, including a 119-113 defeat at Detroit on Sunday. The Pelicans have lost their first two, including a 120-116 overtime defeat against visiting San Antonio on Friday.
“Everybody starts the year off about togetherness and getting through difficult times when no one anticipates it happening,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “They always think it’s going to happen later than sooner, but it happened now so we’ve got to chip away at it.”
Defensive lapses hurt Boston in its first two games. The Celtics gave up 42 points in the fourth quarter of a season-opening 117-116 home loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday. Two nights later, they were outscored 42-14 in the second quarter of a 105-95 loss at New York.
They didn’t give up that many in one quarter against the Pistons, but they did give up a combined 70 in the second and third quarters.
“What matters is that we stick to the process of trying to win,” Mazzulla said. “We’ve got to close better. We played a complete game with effort. Now we’ve got to play a complete game with effort and execution.”
The Pelicans had a chance to win both of their first two games but faltered late. They were outscored 41-22 by host Memphis in the third quarter of a 128-122 road loss on Wednesday night.
Zion Williamson missed a free throw that would have broken a tie with 12 seconds left in the fourth quarter against San Antonio.
“I think we’re figuring it out,” Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III said. “It takes time, but I feel like we’re playing with a lot more fight than we have in the past … but at the end of the day, we still have to finish games.”
New Orleans is short-handed in the frontcourt. Kevon Looney has yet to play because of a knee injury and will be re-evaluated this week, and Karlo Matkovic has yet to play because of an elbow injury. Center Yves Missi sprained an ankle against Memphis, missed the game against San Antonio and is day to day. That left rookie No. 1 draft choice Derik Queen as the only healthy center until the Pelicans signed 37-year-old DeAndre Jordan on Friday.
Queen had 15 points, six rebounds and two blocks in 35 minutes against the Spurs. Jordan could make his debut against Boston.
The Pelicans used a small starting lineup against San Antonio — mostly out of necessity — with Murphy and fellow wing Saddiq Bey being the tallest members at 6-foot-8.
“We’ve had our moments where we’ve played small (in recent seasons),” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “It’s something we’re going to continue to look at. We’ve got guys that can do it. We’ve got to do a better job rebounding.”
San Antonio outrebounded New Orleans by 14 and had 20 offensive rebounds.
Boston, which has been outrebounded 108-75 in its last two games, doesn’t figure to take advantage of the Pelicans’ lack of size to the degree that the Spurs did.
