Krstic and Pavlovic are a good matchup

Nenad Krstic was reading newspapers online, sifting through the rumors as NBA teams were eyeing the market of bought-out players, when Sasha Pavlovic’s name came up.

The Celtics, Krstic’s new team, apparently still were looking for small forwards, and Pavlovic was on their radar. That was interesting to Krstic.

He has known Pavlovic since they were teenagers playing for Yugoslavia in the FIBA Under-20 European championship. They kept in contact when they both went to the NBA. Now, Krstic was in Boston after a deadline trade from Oklahoma City, and speculation was that Pavlovic could be joining him.

He reached for his cellphone.

“He was telling me, ‘Please, man. Do whatever you can to come here,’ ’’ Pavlovic recalled.

“I called him more because he didn’t have a team,’’ Krstic said.

Joining the Celtics was tempting, but Pavlovic had options and he was still weighing them.

“He said there were a couple teams trying to get him,’’ Krstic said.

Pavlovic ended up signing with the Celtics for the rest of the season, giving them depth, but also giving Krstic a familiar face in a new locker room.

“It’s great for me and it’s great for him, too, just to have somebody who speaks your language,’’ said Krstic, who along with Pavlovic will try to help his new team as it faces the Knicks tonight at Madison Square Garden. “We pretty much like the same stuff coming from the same country. It makes life — not just playing basketball — it makes life easier.”

Their closeness is obvious. They live next to each other, they sit next to each other in the locker room. They both have children around the same age.

“Our lives are pretty similar,’’ Krstic said.