Final: Celtics 104, Pelicans 92 - C's start slow but finish strong

GAME 45
Boston Celtics (22-22, 14-8 home, 11th East) vs. New Orleans Pelicans (16-27, 6-16 road, T-12th West)
TD Garden
12:30 PM - NBC Sports Boston

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS

Boston: Dennis Schroder, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, Grant Williams

New Orleans: Devonte’ Graham, Josh Hart, Herbert Jones, Brandon Ingram, Jonas Valanciunas

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- Marcus Smart is in Health and Safety Protocols and remains out.

- Robert Williams is out for personal reasons. That means Boston is limited against Valanciunas. 

“He is a guy they’ve leaned on quite a bit this year, averaging good numbers, 18 and 9. We have to deal with his presence,” Ime Udoka said before the game. “Do it with the bigs we have, show him a crowd, by committee, to some extent. He’s shooting the ball better - 40% from three, and offensive rebounding he’s one of the best in the league, 3 and a half per game. He’s a guy we have to account for for sure. We’ll play Enes obviously more there. We’ll be smaller for the most part, but very active on him.”

- Kira Lewis is out for the Pelicans. Zion Williamson has missed the entire season with a foot injury.

- The Pelicans have lost four straight road games

- Boston is favored by 4

- The 12:30 start is part of the NBA’s MLK Day slate

“It's an honor every day to play, let alone on MLK as a holiday,” Udoka said. “You start to sit back and think a bit there. I've obviously played quite a few of them as a player and coach, but to look at the opportunity afforded for myself and others to be in this position, it's an honor. I think that the league plays these early games and has a good slate going on and everybody's wearing the T-shirts and everything. It's an honor for all of us. Jaylen, as usual, likes to address the crowd. So you'll hear something from him. But overall honor, glad the NBA does what we do as far as recognizing it and playing these early games — early slate of games and let's leave it at that. It's a huge honor for me, obviously.”

THREE THINGS TO WATCH FOR

1. Rebounding: The Pelicans are fourth in the NBA in rebounding. Boston needs to make sure they're clearing away misses and not letting the Pelicans extend possessions. The Celtics defense is good, but they do fall into bad habits of letting opponents get too many second chances.

2. Tighten up the rotations: The Celtics defense looked horrible against Chicago until they clamped down at the end. The Celtics won’t have Robert Williams to erase a lot of their perimeter mistakes, so that means they’ll have to really lock down on the perimeter.

3. Move the ball: A simple one, but the Pelicans are also bad on defense and they are fourth-worst in opponent field goal percentage, so they tend to give up open looks. Don’t settle for the first available jumper. Run a little offense and things should come easier. 

GAME THREAD

Stick around for more comments below as the game goes on. Feel free to add your two cents in the comments.