Boston Celtics: 3 players that must step up in do or die Game 6
By Mark Nilon
Boston Celtics player No. 2) Grant Williams
With Robert Williams out, Ime Udoka has opted to slide Al Horford down to the center position and slot Grant Williams into the starting lineup to serve as the C’s primary power forward.
Now, while this type of unit has proven to be a major positive for the likes of Horford, Williams has surprisingly failed to find any consistency which, over these last three games, has been a major problem for Boston.
During this stretch, the third-year quasi-big finds himself putting up mediocre averages of just six points, four rebounds, and a block on truly putrid shooting splits of 24 percent shooting from the field and 15 percent shooting from deep.
On top of this, he’s been having all sorts of trouble on the defensive side of the ball, as he’s found himself serving as one of the main assignments for the Greek Freak on this end, but has struggled mightily, as he’s been averaging 4.3 fouls from Game 3 on and has even been benched down the stretch of games in favor of the dual guard lineups of Marcus Smart and Derrick White.
Considering just how vital his production was to the team’s second-half surge where they went 31-10, it’s no shock that, with him producing so poorly, the Boston Celtics are finding it hard to come away with wins.
That said, in this series already we’ve seen Williams kick back into his regular-season self, as he went on to drop a whopping 21 points and five boards on 50 percent shooting from the field and 67 percent shooting from deep in Game 2 which, in the end, the shamrocks blew out the Bucks by 23 points, so we know that he’s capable of big things, even against this incredible Milwaukee defense.
In Game 6, the Celtics are undoubtedly going to need the 23-year-old to play up to his potential if they want a chance at winning and bringing things back to Boston.