Center Robert Williams has been representative of the Boston Celtics team performance this year – loads of potential but little reliability on a night-to-night basis.
With the Celtics ravaged by COVID-19 and injuries in the last few weeks, they’ve needed the team’s supporting cast to step up and Williams, 24, hasn’t been up to the task for much of December. The team’s defensive decline had been tied to his regression with a lack of discipline in rim protection and communication.
Offensively, Williams looked hesitant around the rim and lacked aggression at times, coming to the forefront on Monday night when he was badly outplayed by an undermanned Timberwolves front line, leading to Coach Ime Udoka calling out his starting center.
“The majority of his five fouls were undisciplined – him leaving the floor, reaching – so he took himself out of the game as well,” Udoka said after the loss.
Williams responded Wednesday with a career-high 10 offensive rebounds in a loss to the Clippers, then took his game to a different level on Friday, erupting for his first career triple-double (10 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) and adding five blocks in Boston’s blowout win over the Suns.
Udoka changed his offensive game plan by playing through Boston’s bigs far more. Williams showed his playmaking for others and helped to pick apart Phoenix’s defense.
“As I said a few weeks ago, I didn’t know how good of a passer he was,” Udoka said. “Obviously we did some of that stuff with Al (Horford) coming into the season. We can run stuff through both of those guys, but it’s more not being stagnant when the ball goes into them through the high post. Our movement, cuts were great – we played with pace and variety today instead just crossing paths off the ball. The slips, cuts, we knew we could exploit some things in that defense with some smalls switching.”
With Jayson Tatum and Dennis Schroder sidelined still in NBA health and safety protocols, the Celtics were staring at a potential four-game losing streak with the NBA’s best team in Phoenix arriving in town. However, Williams’ ability to respond to adversity was a welcome sign that this group is far better than its 17-19 record indicates.
“He’s more than people think he is,” Udoka said. “I talked to him about expanding his game, with the role, the minutes, everything increasing. There’s a high, high ceiling for him for a lot of different reasons. … He’s a guy who has been resilient at bouncing back and rising to the challenge. I love that about him.”
With a contract extension in place and career-high playing time being handed to him, Williams has started to see what this undermanned group needs from him. For the Celtics to compete in the East, they need to count on Williams.
“I’m realizing the team needs me as well as we need everyone else,” Williams admitted. “But as far as being an anchor defensively, communication-wise, I’m realizing they expect communication out of me, I’m a starter on this team for a reason.
“Just knowing they trust me enough to take what I’m saying and put an effort toward it to fix it is big for me.”
MARCUS SMART, Boston’s starting point guard, was back Friday after a two-game absence because of a hand injury. Smart played one of his best games of the year against Phoenix, posting 24 points and nine rebounds, especially impressive given the condition of his hand just days ago.
“During the Bucks game, I went for a loose ball,” Smart said when asked to describe the injury.
“I think I was guarding Bobby Portis and then I went to the floor and we think a piece of wood was sticking up and kind of just cut me deep. ‘Cause it wasn’t a regular floor burn, it was really deep. And then, yeah, I played through it the rest of that game and the next morning, I was in excruciating pain with it. Like I said, I couldn’t even catch the ball. So just wanted to give it more days to heal up before we go out there and try it.”
The Celtics went 0-2 without Smart, who showed no signs of the injury with his play against Phoenix, shooting 10 of 18 from the field.
“It’s better. Still a little sensitive,” Smart said of the cut.
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