Two weeks after looking a step slow against them in the Smoothie King Center — which resulted in a 124-107 loss, the New Orleans Pelicans failed yet again to match the energy of Brad Stevens’ team for much of a contest, eventually falling 113-100.
Made exponentially worse, Boston was without Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Gordon Hayward, Aron Baynes and Guerschon Yabusele. That’s arguably three of the Celtics top four players and yet one never got the sense the Pelicans had a chance to win just three minutes into the second half.