Grant Williams suspended, Jayson Tatum is cutting out Popeyes, and other Celtics practice notes

Grant Williams will miss tomorrow night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers after being suspended for making contact with an official Monday night in Chicago. 

“Disappointed for sure,” Williams said after the Celtics Thursday afternoon practice at the Auerbach Center. “I was more so disappointed about missing the game. Definitely one of those things where you never want to feel like you let your team down and I feel like I did.”

After the game, crew chief Marc Davis called it “intentional physical contact.” The video replay wasn’t conclusive enough to support Williams’ case that the contact was incidental. 

“No. No. Never that,” Williams said, explaining that his emotions were already high after an offensive foul call on the previous play. “That next play was directly afterwards where I took that charge, which I feel it was a bang-bang play. You could probably go either way with it. Probably looks more like a charge to my eyes. Then it was called a block and I looked up and I saw block and I kind of got up and tried to run off like it was a disagreement. Then I looked up and was like, ‘Oh crap, I’m about to make contact.’ 

“So I literally see in the video I tried to avoid it and my glute hit her hip and that’s why I made contact … I definitely (was) nowhere near intentional, nowhere near anything of that nature.”

Williams says he won’t be challenging the punishment and has reached out through league channels to apologize to the official, Cheryl Flores. League rules prevent players from having direct contact with officials off the floor.

“No matter if it was inadvertent or not, I gotta be better,” he said. “Gotta be more mindful, gotta be more conscious of my surroundings and more conscious of my mental state and not let any of those things affect me during the game.”

Williams says he doesn't think this will impact his standing with the officials, but he understands that he has to be better about controlling his emotions. This is Williams’ first ever ejection and suspension. 

“It’s something that, for me, has been kind of unique and kind of rare and you kind of take a step back. In the moment, you’re kind of livid and you’re like, ‘Why am I suspended?,’” he said “Then you realize it’s for the betterment of the league, it’s for the betterment of yourself, it’s for the betterment of everyone around you. So, for me, I just gotta take ownership of that.”

Meanwhile, the Celtics have to tend to the business of facing the Cleveland Cavaliers tomorrow night. The Cavs are a big team, so losing Williams hurts.

“I think it’s an opportunity to continue to see different things, use our depth, see how we can adjust to their size,” Joe Mazzulla said. “But at the same time we have to focus on our strengths. We have speed, we have skill, we have a lot of space. So it’s a good challenge for us, a good opportunity for our depth. We’ll have to kind of reinvent ourselves a little bit.”

PRESS THE EJECT BUTTON

Someone with more time and energy to look up this kind of thing, but I can’t imagine there has ever been another three-day stretch where someone in an NBA game has been ejected. Mazzulla and Williams had the pleasure on Monday night, Klay Thompson got tossed from Tuesday’s Warriors game in Phoenix, and Steve Nash was thrown out of the Nets loss to Milwaukee last night. 

I don’t know what that means. Are refs getting testy? You can say that for Mazzulla’s ejection (the second tech got rescinded) but not for Williams. I don't know what Thompson said to get his second tech but Nash earned his second last night. 

Let’s see if we get to four in a row tonight. 

STOUDEMIRE STANDS IN

I got a prescient question in my podcast mailbag last week about who might step in if Mazzulla was ever ejected. 

Turns out the answer was Damon Stoudemire. 

“Our whole staff has been tremendous, especially during the change, but Damon just brings a level of wisdom, a level of NBA experience,” Mazzulla said after today’s practice. “Being able to see it from a coaching perspective, but also able to see it from a playing perspective because he’s played at each level of the NBA. He was a rookie, he was a star on a team, and then he was a vet. So he’s been able to bring multiple perspectives. So he’s been great for me.”

ROBERT WILLIAMS SIGHTINGS

Robert Williams has been hanging around the team this week, walking around the Auerbach Center without any signs of a limp. 

“Timeline hasn’t changed as to where it was before,” Mazzulla said. “He’s in a great mood, and it’s good to see him shooting free throws.”

Danilo Gallinari has been around as well, taking a moment yesterday to shoot a few free throws as well. 

PUSHING AWAY POPEYES

Karl Anthony-Towns recently chastised his Timberwolves teammate Anthony Edwards for his diet, saying “I know you all think it's funny up here when he talks about Popeye's and all that shit. That doesn't make me happy to hear. We're high-level athletes. But also, that falls on me too, you know. The old cliché falls on you. Everyone wants to take the blame, but it's on all of us."  

Popeyes shot back with this tweet: 

But now there's another NBA’er pushing the Popeyes off his plate. 

Jayson Tatum. 

In a new interview with Graham Bensinger, Tatum said his fatigue level in the Finals pushed him to make a change in his diet and cut out the fried foods. 

“I talked to my trainer and I was like ‘I want to eat better. I want to change my diet,” he said in the interview. “I’ve always been able to eat what I want, but I’m just trying to find a way to get myself an edge.”

So Tatum has hired himself a chef, and the french fries are off the menu. He was asked directly, “no more Popeyes?”

“Yeah, no more,” he responded. But he said it wouldn’t be hard “because anything that will help me play better, I can start today. So it’s not going to be hard.”

Mazzulla appreciates the increased dedication to his body. 

“I think what you find with guys is that they’re so competitive, they are looking for any advantage,” he said. “As you learn and grow, no matter if you are a player, coach, or whatever, you’re trying to find small advantages to optimize your body and mind, and I think it’s great that people are talking about that, and I think our guys and athletes in general do a good job trying to optimize their minds and their bodies to find that edge.”