Kevin Durant scored 26 points in three quarters before resting the fourth, Amen Thompson added 17 points and nine rebounds, and the Houston Rockets beat the Boston Celtics 128-101 on Saturday night.

Lauri Markkanen led the way for Utah in Sunday’s loss as he ended the game with 29 points, seven rebounds and three assists while Keyonte George recorded 25 points and seven assists.

"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.

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 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,

Of course, the Celtics are still not at the necessary level to be viewed as a contending team. In fact, they're at least one elite-level player and a Jayson Tatum return away from being back to the necessary skill level of a contending roster.