It really didn’t matter where the New Orleans Pelicans played this season.

They were bad at the Smoothie King Center and even worse away from it.

Their 1-14 away record this season is the worst in franchise history through the first 15 road games of a season.

Their overall record of 5-23 is tied with the 2011-12 team with the second-worst start in 28 games. Only the 2004-05 team, which started 2-26, stumbled out of the gate in uglier fashion than this year’s team.

So the Pelicans are hoping a five-game homestand, starting Saturday against the New York Knicks, can help them move in the right direction.

“We need to come home, regroup and be more physical,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said after Thursday’s road loss to the Houston Rockets.

This homestand won’t be easy. The Pelicans will be underdogs in all five games.

The Knicks are third in the Eastern Conference standings. This is followed by a Sunday game against the Denver Nuggets (sixth in the Western Conference). That’s followed by a brutal matchup against three of the top five teams in the West as the Rockets (third in the West), Memphis Grizzlies (second in the West) and Los Angeles Clippers (fifth in the West) all travel to New Orleans.

Only two of the Pelicans’ five wins have come against teams that currently have a winning record. One was against the Nuggets when they were without three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. The other was against the Phoenix Suns, who were without Kevin Durant.

The Pelicans were also without key players for most of the season. The extended absences of key players (particularly Zion Williamson) are the main reason this season has had such a difficult start.

“This is a challenge for our entire group,” Green said. “Not just the staff, but also our players. To their credit, they come after games and put them into practice and pay attention when studying film. They talk. This is what we must continue to do.

“Sometimes there are moments like this where things don’t go the way you want them to. None of us expected to get into a season like this. We had high expectations. We can still change things. But I’m proud of the way these guys handled things.”

Second-year guard Jordan Hawkins, who missed 16 games, admits it was difficult to see the total losses.

“It’s definitely new,” said Hawkins, who played at UConn. “We just have to take it one game at a time. Try to achieve positive victories for the team. Don’t worry about anything else, don’t worry about the outside noise. Just come together as a team and try to do our best every day and live with the results.”

No results are available yet.

It’s not just that they lose. This is how they lose too.

Fifteen of the 23 losses were by double digits. This puts the Pelicans in last place in the Western Conference.

Green has seen this before.

His first team four years ago started 8-20. The Pelicans rallied and managed to reach the play-in tournament by going 28-26 the rest of the game.

“I just remember us standing firm, sticking together and still coming in every day with the right attitude,” Green said. “Learn. Cultivate. Teach. Similar to what we do now.”

Green sees the same resilience in this team.

“I still feel it,” he said. “I still go into every practice wanting to get better and go into the arenas feeling like we can win these games. We have to understand that if you don’t have all your people, the margin for error is small. We can’t make as many mistakes as we do. But we have to get better defensively. We have to bring more physical presence. More resistance. More urgency.”

Green wants that to begin Saturday night, evident by his direct answer when asked what he would like to see in this five-game homestand.

“Winning,” Green said. “Easy. Get some wins.”