‘Availability’ key for Celts’ Williams
Tries to avoid injury or early foul trouble woes
After falling into early foul trouble on Saturday night against Portland’s Jusuf Nurkic, Rob Williams faced the much greater challenge of the Lakers’ Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard on Tuesday night in Los Angeles.
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
Though he’s generally avoided those early hacks this season, Williams admits that there’s only one way to reverse course.
“(Expletive deleted), I gotta stop fouling,” said the Celtics center. “Just knowing personnel and don’t fall for the obvious stuff. Play defense the right way, don’t (gamble). Just try to stay out there, that’s all.”
Williams has increasingly taken a leadership role as the anchor of the Celtics defense, and if they are to continue their rise up the
NBA’s defensive rating chart — they were ninth heading into the Lakers game and a top five defense over their last 10 games — they need their young rim protector on the floor.
As with all of his players, Ime Udoka has focused on Williams erasing some of his bad habits.
“I don’t feel like it’s that tough because I feel like I’ve grown a decent amount from those habits. It’s just everybody gets caught up sometimes,” Williams said of the process. “Everybody in the league, we never think we’re actually fouling people. But that’s just me. Just gotta be smart.
“My biggest growth this season I’d say is for sure being a leader — a vocal leader — just putting people in their places,” he said. “And I get a decent amount of respect for those guys because they can take criticism and not a lot of players of that caliber are able to take criticism.”
Udoka said that he’s pleased with Williams’ development, provided he overcomes the one issue that has consistently plagued him since the start of his career.
“The first thing I would say is availability. That’s with all our guys,” said the Celtics coach. “The last time we played them we didn’t have him. He and Jaylen (Brown) were both out that game. We played well, but just being available is the main thing, first of all, and then just doing what he’s been doing. That’s being an anchor defensively in a lot of different coverages, and then we start to see him mix in some scoring around the basket, hard roller. Mixing those things in, sometimes he gets too unselfish and kicks out, but we encourage that also. He’s doing a great job there.”
Brown scratched from Lakers game
With the stated goal of not wanting Brown to return to action until his strained right hamstring is “100%” healed, Udoka held Brown out of the Lakers game, marking his third straight absence. He had played in the previous five games after returning from an eight-game absence.
“He’s going to be out. As I mentioned the other day, getting him back to 100% is the goal, not 90,” said Udoka. “So, he had a good workout today, ramped it up even more. We’ll be as cautious as we need to get him to that point, whether it’s the next game or the rest of this road trip. We’ll figure that out as we go and if he has to miss some games, so be it.”
Sleeping on the Lakers
The Lakers are off to a mediocre start despite some high-profiled — albeit aged — additions to their lineup. Udoka has little doubt that will change.
“I think there’s some truth to that, but at the same time they’ve been bitten by the injury bug as well,” said Udoka. “When you bring a bunch of new guys together, that’s going to take away from their growth. But at the same time, older guys know their body and what to do to get in game shape and be ready at the right time. I’m sure there’s a sense of that, but there’s a sense of urgency from everyone right now.
These teams have gone through injuries and don’t want to get too far behind. We’ve dealt with it, played well, and in this rivalry I’m sure people have a little more added motivation, being that we just played them a few weeks ago at home as well. They’ll come out with their guns blazing and switch their lineups up and start tinkering to find the right combinations.”