Celtics’ Rob Williams needs to ‘have a short memory’ after costly defensive mistake vs. Pacers
"It shows how committed he is and how he feels about doing the right things."
Related Links
-
Celebs
Khloe Kardashian and her daughter, True, paid a holiday visit to this Massachusetts farm
-
NBA
Terry Rozier dunks on Kevin Durant, trolls the Nets star on Instagram
-
Boston Celtics
Morning sports update: Isaiah Thomas responded to the possibility of a Celtics return
-
Boston Celtics
5 takeaways following the Celtics’ disappointing loss to the Pacers
Robert Williams took the Boston Celtics’ 108-107 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday hard, despite his efficient stat line and career-high four steals.
In his postgame comments, Williams lamented a blown rotation late in the game that allowed Pacers star big man Domantas Sabonis to parade to the rim for what proved to be the game-winning layup. Both Robert and Grant Williams got hung up on a fake dribble hand-off, and Williams couldn’t get back into the play quickly enough to prevent the basket.
After Sabonis’s basket, Williams pounded the ball on the floor in frustration — an emotion that remained later when he spoke to the media.
“I feel like I’m definitely coming along, making progress, but … I’m not coming along fast enough slipping up like this,” Williams said.
On Monday, Celtics coach Brad Stevens declined to say exactly what was supposed to happen on the play, but — for the second day in a row — he lauded Williams’s overall effort.
“The bottom line is a moment of hesitation got Sabonis’s step, and that’s all an All-Star needs,” Stevens said. “We just have to be better in that situation generally. I thought Rob did a lot of good things yesterday, but the whole team has a lot to improve upon, as I knew we did a week ago.”
Williams missed Boston’s second game with an illness after playing sparingly against the Milwaukee Bucks. Boston has worked to integrate new acquisition Tristan Thompson alongside last year’s starting center Daniel Theis, and even in two-big lineups, Williams appears to be the back-up center at best. But his 22-minute night on Sunday included Boston’s late-game push, and Stevens said Williams was comfortably the team’s best center.
“I thought that was pretty clear, right?” Stevens said. “He played with great energy, he played super hard, did everything well. …
“So, we’re going to rotate guys and obviously when we’re struggling we’ve got to find the right mix.”
Marcus Smart, the team’s most veteran presence at this point, said Williams needs to let the mistake go.
“In this league you have to have a short memory,” Smart said. “I know we say that a lot and we talk about it a lot, but it’s true. You can’t let things compound into the next game. … In this league we play other day, back-to-backs, there’s lot of games, a lot of time, a lot of opportunities to take those mistakes from previous games and learn from them. A guy like Rob who’s very hard on himself, it shows how committed he is and how he feels about doing the right things.”
The Celtics take on the Pacers again on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Get Boston.com's browser alerts:
Enable breaking news notifications straight to your internet browser.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com