In his NBA debut, Greg Stiemsma blocked six shots in 17 minutes. There, that’s your good news after the Celtics lost 97-78 to a New Orleans team that was without its star guard, Eric Gordon, and literally became a team two weeks ago when Gordon, Chris Kaman and Al-Farouq Aminu were finally traded for Chris Paul.

Other than that, there was nothing of value the Celtics could take from the oh-so-familiar sight of a lethargic performance in a back-to-back.

Kevin Garnett and Jermaine O’Neal were dominated in the paint by Emeka Okafor, Carl Landry and Chris Kaman. The Celtics shot 37 percent and if you take away the solid but unspectacular nights of Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo, the rest of the team was 19-for-60.

The bench, which provided energy and enthusiasm in its first two games, couldn’t get out of its own way as Brandon Bass stumbled through a 4-for-13 shooting performance and Marquis Daniels missed nine of his 12 shots.

Small sample size or not, there are already some worrisome signs developing. To wit:

• O’Neal has played 60 minutes in three games and scored just eight points on 3-for-12 shooting. He grabbed six rebounds against the Hornets, which tripled his season total to nine.
• Since playing 37 minutes against the Knicks, Garnett has scored just 22 points and hasn’t been to the free throw line once.
• Keyon Dooling played 23 minutes and didn’t record a single assist. He has just three in 58 minutes and the Celtics offense goes from stagnant to disorganized whenever Rondo isn’t on the court.
• The Hornets shot 15 free throws in the first half, while the Celtics didn’t get to the line until the 4:04 mark of the second quarter. Howl about the officiating all you want, and the Celtics have been on the wrong end of some controversial calls, but they have been sending teams to the line at an alarming rate and that speaks to tired legs and poor rotations.

The Celtics are not alone in this malaise of bad basketball. We’re not even a week into the new season and uninspiring blowouts are taking place in every arena across the country and Toronto. That’s the ultimate price of a lockout that should have been resolved long before Thanksgiving weekend.

Their 0-3 start could have been avoided if they had been able to hold a fourth quarter lead against the Knicks on Christmas, but once that game was lost the ugly specter of a winless road trip was all too obvious.

The schedule softens a bit with the home opener on Friday against what looks like a terrible Pistons team and after a back-to-back with the woeful Wizards, the Celtics will be at home against New Jersey on Wednesday. They will be home for two straight weeks in early January including a four-day stretch from Jan 7-10 that will serve as a mini training camp.

That’s the good news. The bad news is they will once again face a crush of three games in four nights and four in six. The schedule isn’t changing and unless Paul Pierce is able to get back on the court the Celtics will have to make do with what they have.

Time to play the kids?

There is no player more popular than a young player who sits on the end of the bench and rarely sees any action on the court. As long as such a player sits, he carries the possibility of hope and optimism.

Take Greg Stiemsma, for example. The 26-year-old rookie has already had a career’s worth of experiences in the D-League and overseas, but when he was unleashed last night he suddenly went from a journeyman to the Wisconsin version of Dikembe Mutombo.

Stiemsma blocked his first shot on his very first possession as an NBA player and he finished with six in just 17 minutes of action. Shot-blocking is a dimension the Celtics have simply not had the last four years, but that hardly mattered because their defense suffocated teams before they got close to the basket.

That’s not the case right now. Whether it’s because of dribble penetration, poor rotations, tired legs, a lack of familiarity or all of the above, teams are scoring on the Celtics at will in the paint. Stiemsma is limited offensively and not nearly the help defender that O’Neal should be, but if they have to protect the rim he’s their best chance right now.

On the other hand, Avery Bradley has seemingly played himself out of a job after just three games. In 20 minutes of action he’s missed three shots and recorded just one rebound and one assist. Coach Doc Rivers told reporters in New Orleans that E’Twaun Moore would be getting those minutes, scarce as they are, and that’s a setback for a player who has shown little value beyond the occasional flash of pressure defense.

The team’s other rookie, JaJuan Johnson, also made his debut against the Hornets in garbage time. It’s way too early to get any kind of a read on Johnson, or any of the young players for that matter, but with Garnett and O’Neal laboring, Rivers needs to find reinforcements for his frontline that is already thin without Chris Wilcox.

Where’s the defense?

The Celtics played zone for a few possessions on Wednesday. It worked against Miami, but it was a sad indication that the Celtics couldn’t keep the Hornets out of the paint. This wasn’t LeBron James and Dwyane Wade doing work. This was Jarrett Jack (21 points, nine assists), Landry, Okafor and Chris Kaman doing whatever they wanted.

The Celtics defense is in shambles. Their vaunted strongside pressure defense has been a sieve and it’s more than Pierce’s absence that is to blame. It starts with dribble penetration, but it extends to help and recovery and there have been way too many instances of wide open dunks and shots in the paint after one or two passes.

The Hornets did most of their work between three to nine feet, according to HoopData’s box score, where Okafor, Jack and Grevies Vasquez made 10 of 13 shots. (Offensively, the Celtics somehow missed 15 of their 17 attempts from that range).

The Celtics have tried playing faster. They’ve tried zones. They’ve tried everything because their trademark defense is nowhere to be found. The Celtics have surrendered a Raptor-like 113 points per 100 possessions, about 13 more than they gave up last season. That’s the most important thing they have to fix because they won’t get far trying to outscore teams.