Rob Williams, who played 20 minutes in Game 2, continues to suffer from recurring soreness in his surgically-repaired left knee, which also has a bone bruise dating back to a collision with Giannis Antetokounmpo.
As such, Williams missed Saturday night’s Game 3 after playing in the previous two games of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Celtics center had also missed the last four games of the conference semifinals against Milwaukee.
“He had some soreness and swelling that cropped up,” Ime Udoka said of Williams, who decided that he couldn’t go after testing the knee pregame.
“I’d say the bone bruise,” the Celtics coach said of the primary cause of Williams’ current difficulty. “Kind of brought it along in the Milwaukee series, obviously missing three games there.
“But just in general, you know, he’s seven weeks post-op right now and two weeks since the bone bruise happened and that kind of brought it back up. Obviously he had to miss some games due to that, and now with the every-other-day games, he’s not getting the rest he initially got with those three-day breaks. So some natural soreness and swelling this soon after surgery would occur, but taking that hit didn’t help it for sure.”
Daniel Theis started in Williams’ place.
Grant and PJ
The similarities are certainly obvious now, but during his days at the University of Tennessee, Grant Williams heard a lot from his coach Rick Barnes about his similarities to P.J. Tucker.
Barnes had coached Tucker at Texas before taking over the Volunteers, and in Williams he saw the future prototype of a rugged 3-and-D player.
“Coach Barnes used to say all the time that (I reminded him a lot of PJ), but yeah, so definitely in college I looked at a lot of his clips with Coach Barnes and understood what he did in college but also the NBA, and he hit with a lot of guys,” said Williams. “He said Jae Crowder, P.J., guys like that, he said those are the roles, you have to find a way to fit in. And it’s an honor to be able to compete against him, not only just because he’s been playing in the league for as long as he has, but the amount of guys he has competed with and the amount of energy and tenacity that he brings every single night. I guess it’s that Rick Barnes connection that brings the best out of both of us, I guess.”
New dad Derrick
Derrick White discovered the realities of fatherhood, NBA style, when he missed Game 2 to be with his wife, Hannah, as she gave birth to a son they named Hendrix James White.
He was a little late – Hannah was being induced as he flew up from Miami.
“I mean, it’s crazy. Obviously, he came a couple of days early but got in in the morning and just trying to figure out if she was actually in labor or what was going on,” White said after Saturday morning’s shootaround. “And then once I found out she was in labor, I just tried to get that first flight out.
“I missed one, which would have got me there earlier, but finally got on one and was just texting with her mom the whole time while she eventually gave birth to our son,” he said. “And it was just a special feeling. I wasn’t there but even just getting pictures and videos and all that on the plane, it was just special and he’s already changed our life, so it’s been crazy. And then just sitting with him, watching the game, cheering us on from home, so it was cool. And just one of those moments that I’ll have forever.
“I was like a couple hours late, by time I actually got to the hospital. They were trying to like wait for me and do whatever but however, y’all both safe and do what you got to do. So I figured I’d be late, I’d miss it. But really just them both being healthy and safe was all that mattered to me.”
White also becomes the second Celtic with a son carrying the name of the late virtuoso guitarist. Robert Williams has a son named Hendrix.
“Actually, we picked it before I got traded. And then I was like, yeah, it’s kind of unique, we don’t know anybody with that name. There’s a lot of other reasons. And then I get traded here and like the first couple weeks someone’s like, ‘Oh, that’s what Rob named his kid.’ I was like, we really named it because it was kind of unique. So we’ll just be Hendrix. 2.0 and we’ll go from there.
“We actually bought a Jimi Hendrix art piece a couple of years ago in Aspen. So we got that hanging outside his room now, so it’s kind of a cool little piece.”