Things didn’t start particularly well for Robert Williams. He got a steal early in the first quarter and was ahead of everyone on the break, and … well …
Yeah, not great. But it weirdly might have been an early signal that Rob was in passing mode this afternoon.
Williams finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists for his first career triple double. Typically, when a player is on the verge of a triple double with one statistic left to get it, he knows right away.
Williams was blissfully unaware.
“When I subbed out the game, I think. J-Rich was like, ‘Oh yeah, Rob! Triple-double Rob!’” he said. “Thankful for it for sure.”
Jaylen Brown knew that Williams needed just one more assist when he checked back into the game in the fourth quarter. And you don’t have to tell a scorer trying to get his teammate an assist what to do.
“I saw that he was on TD watch the whole time,” Brown said. “Rob is great, man. Rob is exceptional … We need him to be as consistent as possible.”
Williams has had his ups and downs this season, just like the team. It might not be much of a surprise that Boston’s struggles have coincided with Williams’. He might get lost in all the discussion of Brown and Jayson Tatum. Other issues might overshadow his importance. But when Williams has it going, the whole team seems to benefit.
“There’s a high, high ceiling for him for a lot of different reasons,” Ime Udoka said. “We see a lot in him and that’s why we’re coaching him hard. I don’t look at it as calling him out - I told him the same thing about keeping himself in the game regarding the fouls where he left his feet and reaching in when we were short of bodies. He’s a guy who has been resilient at bouncing back and rising to the challenge. I love that about him.”
The Williams/Udoka dynamic is one that few people talk about, but it could prove to be one of the most important ones on the team. If the coach can prod his young center into reaching his full potential, then he has a crucial supporting piece for the future.
“I guess he sees something in me I don’t. I’m thankful for the way he’s pushing me every day, trying to get that out of me I guess,” Williams said “But it’s just an honor to have him talking like that, but obviously it’s more I have to achieve if my coach feels like that.”
Udoka isn’t the only one who sees it.
“I think, at times, he puts a lot of pressure on himself,” Brown said. “But when he comes out and plays basketball, there's not a lot of people that can contain him on both ends. His effect on defense and offense tonight, everybody's seen it. … I tell him all the time, don't be afraid to be great. I think Rob had a great night tonight and deserves all the praise he should get.”
He’ll get a lot of it for carrying out the team’s gameplan. The Celtics decided to exploit a weakness they saw in the Phoenix Suns defense, and it manifested itself in a career-high 10 assists for Williams (and 7 for Al Horford).
“I said a few weeks ago I didn’t know how good of a passer he was,” Udoka said. “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.”
If this performance teaches the Celtics anything, it’s that if you cut when Williams has the ball in the high post, he’s going to find you. When a defender makes a mistake, like Chris Paul did in the first quarter, it’s going to turn into a layup -- which it did for Romeo Langford.
“I feel like I’m one of the people on my team that has to set the tone, especially being a starter,” Williams said “I feel like that’s what they look towards me for, I feel like it’s one of my main jobs on the team just to come out with that energy, and as far as being disciplined, you always want to be disciplined. So the game gets away from us a lot sometimes, we try to fix it, but like I said, I feel like tonight we did a good job holding it together.”
The Celtics held it together thanks, in part, to Williams picking the Suns defense apart and leading his Celtics teammate to the rim. Instead of settling for 3-pointers, the Celtics did their damage in the paint, scoring 64 in that area -- more than half their points. It was a much-needed departure from recent games, and it came thanks to perhaps their best passer and what the team hopes will be the first of many triple-doubles.
"It was a great accomplishment,” Williams said. “Thanks to my teammates, you know what I'm saying. if they don't hit shots, I wouldn't have it. But overall, man, I feel like we played a good game. I'm happy about that. I feel like when you start hitting a little adversity, third quarter, early, fourth, we stayed together. We've been struggling with that."