The Boston Celtics returned to their winning ways Monday night with a thrilling 118-112 home win against the New Orleans Pelicans. It was not a walk in the park for Jayson Tatum and the Celtics, who had to dig deep to overcome Zion Williamson and company. After the game, Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla opened up about how his team could benefit from having to go through such games where they had to claw their way back up (h/t Bobby Manning of Celtics on CLNS).

Mazzulla says there's an entitlement to winning, you're not going to win all the time.”I thought we sucked in the first quarter,” then pointed to the 24 points allowed in the 2Q as a lead. Says he hopes #Celtics experience blown leads, other challenges to understand that.

Mazzulla says it's more the general perception that the #Celtics are supposed to win every night, rather than one that exists internally. “We have to earn a win every night.”

The Celtics entered the fourth quarter down by six points, but erased that deficit and eventually got the lead for good thanks in large part to the big performances by Tatum and Derrick White. Tatum poured in 14 of his 28 points in the game during the fourth quarter, while White had 13 of his 17 points in the same quarter. Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday added 22 and 20 points, respectively, for the Celtics, who played without injured big man Kristaps Porzinigs.

The Celtics can expect another tough challenge this coming Tuesday when they get a visit from the high-scoring Indiana Pacers.