Robert Williams misses the game. Hugging a basketball at his first post-surgery press conference, the Celtics starting center was characteristically upbeat just a week removed from tearing his left meniscus.
Last Sunday, Williams left a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves late in the third quarter after feeling pain in his knee. “I ain’t know what was wrong during the game, but I knew something happened that was going to stop me from playing. I was just telling Payton on the bench, I was like, ‘I’m kinda nervous, bro. My knee’s hurting,’” Williams recalled. “I tried to walk around a little bit, but I couldn’t walk around, so next day, I found out I had torn it, but honestly right now, I’m in a great place mentally.