Robert Williams has higher hopes than he has hops when it comes to continuing his rim-protecting dominance for the Boston Celtics in their first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets.
After sending away nine shots in the C’s series-opening loss–which was the most blocks from a bench player in a postseason game since they started tracking in 1974–Williams said that he can raise the bar even higher.
Williams doesn’t believe the feat means much given the 11-point deficit Boston was on the wrong side of, but there is a personal record he’d like to set.
In an interview with NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg, Williams said he’d like to one day collect 17 rejections in a single game:
.@ChrisForsberg_ caught up with Robert Williams after his big nine block performance in game 1 and they talked about Rob's toes 😂
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) May 25, 2021
Don't miss the full interview tonight during pregame on @NBCSBoston pic.twitter.com/6fIvIOQo5p
Williams was a major factor off the bench for Boston against Brooklyn. Falling just shy of a triple-double in just 22 minutes (11 points, nine rebounds, nine blocks), Williams continued a trend of dominating the Nets at the rim this season:
Robert Williams has faced Brooklyn twice this season. Here's how the Nets' players have fared when defended by him:
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) May 25, 2021
3-22 FG
0-8 3P
25 contested shots
15 blocks
(per NBA's tracking data) pic.twitter.com/zxLeGzhCW1
The Boston Celtics will need another big game from Williams, who is suffering from turf toe, if they have any ambitions of upsetting the Nets. Brooklyn’s Big 3 scored 82 points and overwhelmed the Cs at the rim in game one…outside of the minutes he was on the floor.
As Forsberg said, a ten-toed “Time Lord” might be able to unleash even more chaos at the summit, but as long as he is in the lineup, the battle on the glass won’t be so lopsided after a 50-40 Nets advantage during the first clash of the #2-#7 seeds.