Al Horford, Jae Crowder returning to Celtics lineup Saturday

Jae Crowder, sidelined by an ankle injury, lamented not being able to guard Durant on Friday, this after voicing his displeasure with Durant’s decision to join Golden State over the summer.

Al Horford scored on a put-back layup with 1.3 seconds remaining to lift the Boston Celtics past the Pistons, 94-92, at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Celtics: Horford missed his ninth straight game with a concussion, but he sat on the bench during the game. All the motivation was there for the Warriors to come out and play with energy against an undermanned Celtics squad and set the tone on national television, and they did just that.

“Al had by far his best day (Thursday)”, Stevens said.

Horford added that he was “finally at a point where I felt good enough to play”.

Harris knocked down a corner trey with 23.2 seconds left to tie it. Crowder missed a jump shot but Horford won the scrum for the loose ball and scored with 1.3 seconds left.

“Offensively and defensively this is the best we’ve played all year”, James said afterwards.

But a win is a win and the Celtics desperately needed one after getting getting blown out by the Golden State Warriors at home in TD Garden. But we just need to grind.

Nicolas Batum scored a season-high 24 points, Cody Zeller scored 23 and Kemba Walker had 21 as the Charlotte Hornets rallied from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Atlanta 100-96, snapping the Hawks’ six-game win streak. The Pistons are 5-0 at home so far this season, and the only team that is still undefeated at home.

They’ve been a completely different club on the road with a 1-7 mark.

THE GOLDEN STATE Warriors extended their winning streak as the return of LeBron James inspired reigning National Basketball Association champions the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Detroit was held to 31.2 percent shooting by the Cavaliers and none of its starters reached double figures.

“We started subbing”, said Thomas to Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports.

Keys to the Game Run, Run, Run – The Celtics have proved that when they run and move the ball up the court quickly, good things happen.

Van Gundy indicated he would consider changing the starting lineup.

The celebration was nearly extremely embarrassing as the Celtics slowly pieced together a comeback in the first half of the fourth quarter, going 21-9 through the first six minutes or so of the quarter.

The next stop on the Celtics’ three-game road trip is Minnesota, where they’ll battle the 4-7 Timberwolves on Monday night. “I give them all the credit”. “Right now, having time to think is hard when … you’re just playing all the time”. “We were just very bad”. They joined the Lakers, Celtics, 76ers, Knicks, Hawks and Pistons in that group.

Warriors: Golden State had 30 or more assists for the sixth straight game and the eighth time this season.

On the final play of the first quarter, Boston rookie Jaylen Brown threw up a 3-pointer that missed and it looked like he might have been fouled by Andre Iguodala as the buzzer sound.