MILWAUKEE – As rapidly as Robert Williams returned from left knee surgical procedure to restore a torn meniscus, there was at all times the chance that swelling and soreness would observe sooner or later this spring.
The return of mentioned soreness and swelling was sufficient to maintain Williams out of Game 4 Monday night time in Fiserv Forum. But in response to Ime Udoka, the Celtics heart isn’t anticipated to overlook a lot time as a result of flare-up.
“It’s not unexpected to have this after a surgery, but it’s been soreness at times and just a little more irritated today than usual,” mentioned the Celtics coach. “So they took a take a look at it, tried to heat him up. But in between different video games, he’s had some pure soreness and simply was somewhat worse immediately. So not rather more to check, simply ache tolerance and flexion.
“Just kind of flared up and kind of out of nowhere and didn’t really feel anything yesterday or during the game, it wasn’t an incident, so a little flare-up and got irritated. Tried to warm up and didn’t feel good enough.”
Asked if Williams was anticipated to be prepared for Game 5 on Wednesday in Boston, Udoka mentioned, “Yeah we would expect so. Like I said he’s had some natural soreness after upping his minutes in intensity, and so, like I said, not unexpected after a surgery but you just expect it to calm down and get back out there for next game.”
Theis returns
Daniel Theis, who had performed a complete of seven minutes over the primary three video games of the sequence, figured to play a a lot bigger function in Game 4. Grant Williams was given the beginning rather than Rob.
“He held it down while (Williams) was out and specifically can go back to the Milwaukee game, one of the last games of the year, he played extremely well here,” mentioned Udoka. “So he’s a guy that – I wouldn’t say insurance policy – but a guy we’ve very comfortable plugging in in situations. He’s obviously different than Rob but shouldn’t miss a beat with some of the things he does on both ends.”
Budenholzer tries to recollect
Though they spent one season collectively (2012-13) on Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio employees earlier than Mike Budenholzer left to take his first head teaching job in Atlanta, the Bucks coach had bother Monday night time recalling Udoka as a fellow assistant. Budenholzer higher remembers Udoka as a participant.
“I played for them for 2½ years so I knew him, obviously, coming in. But just to see him behind the scenes, how meticulous he was about things. We all have different personalities as coaches, but Brett Brown was there as well and went to Philly, so I kind of interned under them my first year with Pop, obviously,” mentioned Udoka. “Just discovered how quirky he’s, and completely different and I bought to know him properly. But to see how he works behind the scenes, and among the debates with him had been basic, a man that thinks he is aware of every thing.
“Arguments all the time. Pop loved those and Bud and Brett every meeting went at it. So I was a first-year guy kind of absorbing that. So I just watched them argue every day, and Pop enjoyed it as well. So, 12 and 18 years together, and they went at it every day.”
Holiday a bodily problem
As the Celtics have been reminded on this sequence, Jrue Holiday is without doubt one of the most bodily scoring guards within the NBA.
“He’s a physical guard that enjoys the contact,” mentioned Udoka. “Smaller guards wrestle with him, however he doesn’t differentiate huge wings and massive males, tries to go at everybody the identical.
“But when you look at his numbers we’ve been really good on him as well,” he mentioned. “He has some ones that stand out for big buckets late, like last night, but he took 30 shots to get 27 points yesterday. In other games it’s been 20 shots to get 19 points. So overall we’re defending him well. But that’s his game, he wants to feel your body, kind of hit guys, and he’s been that way his whole career. Gotta be ready to embrace that physicality and know he’s gonna come at you like that. Just take the challenge in general, but he doesn’t differentiate small guards, bigs and big wings. That’s the way he’s always played.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com