Timelord just ‘a little sore,’ Celtics ‘took the safe approach’ with Williams, per coach Ime Udoka

Justin Quinn
·2 min read
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Fans of the Boston Celtics who have been following Robert Williams III‘s career are very aware of the incentives in his new contract extension designed to mitigate the potential absence of the Texas A&M product due to injury, with Timelord having had a tough time staying on the floor until last season, itself cut short by the pandemic.

So when they hear that Williams will sit out a game due to tendinitis in his knee as he did for the Celtics’ preseason finale against the Miami Heat on Friday night, it’s fair for them to be more than a little concerned.

After the game however, head coach Ime Udoka downplayed the seriousness of the scratch when asked if he thought it might be a recurring issue.

“No, we don’t think so,” shared Udoka, “(Timelord) just has some soreness yesterday and early this morning.”

“We tested it at shootaround, we tested it before the game and it felt a little sore, so we were on the safe side. Obviously, (in a) preseason game, we still want to get a look at certain guys, and he’s played quite a few minutes in all three games, so we took the safe approach.”

“It’ll be ready to go against (the) New York (Knicks for the season opener on Oct. 20),” added the Celtics coach.

While it’s certainly not an ideal outcome, hearing that the team is ostensibly simply not putting miles on the legs of a guy who has had problems with them in the past for meaningless games when he says they’re hurting a bit is undoubtedly the right call.

And in the meantime, fans of the Lousiana native will exhale when he’s gotten a bunch of regular-season games under his belt without issue. And can you blame them, given the collective high hopes for what Williams could do with this group?

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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