The Celtics were mismatched against the Rockets, who handed Boston its third-largest defeat of the Joe Mazzulla era.

It seemed possible that Scheierman might have a tough battle ahead of him to get back on the court with Boston early in the start to the season, and such dynamics do not exactly lend themselves to the sort of confident play needed to snap whatever errors were keeping the Hastings,

BOTTOM LINE: Utah looks to end its three-game slide with a victory over Boston. Boston went 61-21 overall a season ago while going 28-13 at home. The Celtics averaged 116.3 points per game last season, 41.2 in the paint, 15.6 off of turnovers and 11.9 on fast breaks.

The Boston Celtics handed the Philadelphia 76ers their first loss of the season and delivered a wire-to-wire reminder of their resilience, edging out a tense 109-108 victory to open NBA Cup play on Friday night.

"It’s 82 games. It’s a lot of traveling, a lot of back to backs at times, so it can be tiring," said Pritchard.

The former Celtics big man will have to work his way into Portland’s rotation. The Blazers have leaned on Donovan Clingan as their starter thus far, with Duop Reath and first-round pick Yang Hansen coming off the bench. It’s unclear how Williams fits in the front court, but getting him back on the court is still a positive sign.

Joel Embiid was fined $50,000 for making a "lewd gesture" during the Philadelphia 76ers' 109-108 loss to the Boston Celtics Friday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

If the Celtics can figure out how to build on that performance, they could be a sleeper team in the Eastern Conference, despite all of the cost-cutting moves the front office made during the summer. In a recent episode of the "Hoops Tonight" podcast,

Rockets guard Amen Thompson had a strong game at both ends Saturday as Houston throttled Boston for its third straight victory.