As we wait for the Boston Celtics to grow into whatever team they’re going to be this season, the Celtics continue to wait for their full team to take the floor.
Only three Celtics -- Jayson Tatum, Dennis Schröder, and Grant Williams -- have played in all 14 games so far this season. Tonight they’ll be without two starters once again as Jaylen Brown (right hamstring) and Robert Williams (left knee) will sit out in Atlanta.
“Rob felt some soreness in the second quarter,” Ime Udoka said after the win over Cleveland Monday night. “Not sure if he did something specific to it, but it was pretty tight at halftime and felt a sharp pain, so we kept him out.”
Today Udoka said there was no testing done on the knee, indicating that the team doesn’t think it’s a serious issue.
“It's a short-term thing,” he said. “Just didn't feel ready to go tonight. He felt better than the other night when it happened but just being cautious with that.”
Williams himself said the knee is getting better and that he is taking it day-by-day. He’s unsure about how it happened, exactly, but he did initially try to play through it.
“I just remember starting to take steps down the court and starting to feel that pain,” he said this morning. “Wasn’t trying to show it to the coaching staff, but when they seen me limping a little bit, they took me out.”
Williams is enjoying his best season as a Celtic so far. He’s playing 30 minutes a game for the first time in his NBA life, and it’s resulting in a career-high and league-leading field goal percentage (73.4%), and career highs in both offensive (4.1) and defensive rebounds (5.2) pushing him very close to averaging a double-double (10.0 ppg, 9.2 rpg). The 10 points is also a career-high).
Al Horford has said he’s spoken to Williams about taking care of himself when it comes to nutrition, treatment, and other preventative measures to take care of his body. The message seems to be getting through.
“Obviously playing the most minutes I’ve played in my career, it’s something I gotta be on top of as far as treatment wise and everything else,” Williams said.
As for Brown, there were rumblings of him being available for the second Cavaliers game, but that didn’t materialize. Neither will a return against Atlanta.
“Jaylen has ramped up his workouts but he won't be available tonight either,” Udoka said.
The Celtics next play on Friday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, which will be a new target date for Brown to return. It’s possible LeBron James will return from his injury in that game, so a full-strength Celtics team would be very beneficial.
CONTROVERSIAL KANTER
Enes Kanter is no stranger to strong political stands. He has a long history of challenging the President of his homeland of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to the point of being unable to travel outside of the United States for risk of arrest.
Now he’s taking on China, tweeting about Taiwan and Tibet, among other issues, and wearing those messages on his sneakers.
Kanter has only played in three games this season for the Celtics, and one of them was in garbage time of a blowout. The Celtics have gone with Horford and Robert Williams as their primary bigs and Grant Williams as a change-of-pace small-ball center or power forward alongside one of the other bigs.
Kanter, though, seemed to intimate the lack of playing time was tied to his political stances.
Keep limiting me on the court,
— Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) November 14, 2021
I will expose you off the court. pic.twitter.com/pnIvlbrrtL
“We have a lot of guys that aren't playing that could be playing and want to play,” Udoka said in response to the tweet. “Our playing time reasoning is strictly based on basketball. And I've talked to Enes about the reasons he's not playing as much in some of the things we're doing, defensively, in areas for him to improve on. My thing is strictly basketball. We're switching a lot and doing some things that probably are not as natural for him and that's limited his time to some extent. But, at the same time, it's not just a result of what he's not doing. It's other guys are doing it well.”
Kanter did play eight minutes against Cleveland after Robert Williams’ injury. Udoka says Kanter could play tonight as well.
“We’ll see what we do off the bench, whether it’s going bigger with Enes, or it’s downsizing with a guy like Jabari like we have in the past,” Udoka said. “Doesn’t change a lot of wing rotations off the bench - it’s more a matter of having one big in there at a time as opposed to two to start with.”
Regardless of Kanter’s playing time, Udoka and President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens have both expressed support for Kanter to speak on whatever political matters he chooses.
“(It’s) not really a distraction,” Udoka said. “Like I said, our reasons are basketball specific. I don't have social media. I've heard of some things but guys have the right to express their views. And I've said that from Day 1. Nothing basketball related will be based on any of that.”
SCHRÖDER THE STARTER
It’s early, but in eight games as a starter, Schröder is averaging 20.9 points on 58% true shooting, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.1 assists and is a +5.9. In six games off the bench (and nine fewer minutes per game), he’s averaging 12.2 points on 47/8% true shooting, 3.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists.
The early numbers point to Schröder as the starter, but Udoka says his main role will stay off the bench.
“When Jaylen comes back, we'll have our original starting lineup in there, put him back in that bench role,” the coach said. “But he's a pseudo sixth starter for us, a guy that finishes games and in that role, he's very comfortable.”
The increased scoring is clearly a function of him filling in for a missing starter, often Brown, who has missed six of Boston’s 14 games so far this season. Tonight will be his seventh.
“Yeah, Dennis has filled a lot of roles for us, obviously with the guys being out now he's in the starting lineup,” Udoka said. “That's who he's been throughout his career; scorer-slash-point guard that can initiate and get the other guys involved. ... He can score at a high level but, as I mentioned, OKC, prior years, he was coming off the bench and averaging 20 So he's a guy that fills a lot of holes and we just need him to stay aggressive but also get guys involved.”
One thing Schröder is a little loose with (besides the ball, as evidenced by his 5.25 turnovers per game over the last four games) is Udoka’s “.5” rule. That’s a concept from his San Antonio days where players are encouraged to either drive, pass, or shoot within a half second of receiving the ball. The idea is to make a quick read and them do something rather than stand around and let the defense get set.
“Well with Dennis, he is a guy that can score the ball so he has obviously more leash than some other guys,” Udoka said. “That's what he does, that's what he's always done, so it's a mix. Depending on how the team is guarding, we encourage him to play fast and not hold the ball and try to survey too much where they can load up on him, but at the same time, if he finds an advantage that he likes, he's gonna obviously handle the ball a little bit more and try to get his own shot off.”
Schröder will start again tonight in Brown’s absence.
PRITCH DITCHES MASK
Payton Pritchard has been dealing with a broken nose suffered late in the preseason, and a bit of broken jumper. He started Monday night’s game wearing the protective mask he’d been wearing all season so far. He ditched it in the second half, leading to questions of whether the mask was partly to blame for his shooting problems.
“I don’t know if it has anything to do with the mask,” Udoka said. “It could be that you’re missing shots and looking for something, as far as that, but just him coming in and being who he is and hunting shots.”
Pritchard was unavailable to answer questions about it after the game. Due to COVID restrictions, only select players are available after games. Those slots are usually available to guys who have played well, or played the most. Pritchard has been in neither camp so far.
“It’s a little tough to find him minutes,” Udoka said. “But I talked to all the bench guys today and told them I’ve been there, so stay ready, stay prepared. Opportunity is going to come, so take advantage whether you have three minutes or 10 or 20.”