Boston Celtics center Robert Williams III is less than 10 weeks removed from surgery on a torn meniscus in his left knee. He suffered a bone bruise in the same knee in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, and he buckled to the court in Game 2 of the NBA Finals when Marcus Smart collided with that knee during the third quarter.
The 24-year-old All-Defensive big man is giving all he has left, and it might be too much.
The Golden State Warriors are crushing Boston’s two-big lineups. With two of either Williams, Al Horford, Daniel Theis or Grant Williams on the floor, the Celtics have been outscored by 33 points over 64 minutes through two games of the series. They have beat the Warriors by 26 in the remaining 32 minutes.
Robert Williams and Horford were a dominant duo in the regular season. Along with Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum in the starting lineup, they won every 100 possessions by an average of 24.6 points and finished the regular season with a 27-7 record when taking the court together. With Williams hobbled in the playoffs, they are 4-4 and getting outscored by 13.9 points per 100 possessions.
It has been worse against Golden State. The Warriors have buried the Celtics by a combined 18 points against the Williams-Horford tandem at the start of the first and third quarters. Only a blistering contested shotmaking display to start Game 2 kept that deficit from being larger. Considering the halftime margin for both games has been two points, Boston has been digging out of holes it dug at the start of each half.
All of this is solved if Robert Williams somehow gets healthy overnight. Otherwise, it remains a problem.
The Celtics started Grant Williams in place of Robert Williams for the final four games of their second-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, winning three of them by a combined 49 points. With the four other starters, Grant Williams is minus-28 in 152 minutes — Boston’s most-used lineup in the playoffs. That may be enough to convince…