"I think at the end of the day ... they just have to continue to put great possessions together," said Mazzulla.

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.

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.

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,

Regarding the tanking aspect, however, head coach Joe Mazzulla didn't even want to bring that up, saying that he doesn't pay attention to it and that he has a responsibility to the fans in Boston and the players in Boston to go out every single night and do his best job to ensure the team has a chance to win.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. You can watch tonight's game on Amazon Prime. You can also stream it on Amazon Prime. Yes, you can. To listen to Friday's Celtics game on the radio, tune in to 98.5 FM The Sports Hub at the time of tip-off, as 98.5 is the flagship station of the Boston franchise, according to their website.

The Boston Celtics have gotten some positive injury news on Jaylen Brown ahead of their matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers.

After the exit of Jrue, Horford, Kornet, and KP and their replacement by Minott, Queta, Garza, and Simons has required the Celtics to shake up their offensive playbook.

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.