The Celtics beat a team Sunday night that has now lost 16 in a row. Yes, the 134-107 win over the Rockets really wasn't that big a deal.
But you know what was? What Robert Williams did.
Get the picture?
It's not a leap of faith to suggest that with all the Celtics' problems heading into the last two weeks of March Williams represents part of the solution.
So, why aren't we seeing more him? Nineteen minutes!
Celtics' coach Brad Stevens has an explanation, although it might not be what many followers of the team are looking for.
“I just think we can make it so that he can play more, and more and more as the season goes on,” Stevens said. “Again, the density of the games and his history, especially last year, we’re just being conservative. But he’s getting a lot better. You can see that. And he’s able to play a little bit longer stints than he has in the past, because he plays really hard when he’s out there. So that’s all encouraging.”
The roadblocks to Williams finding more minutes are fellow centers Tristan Thompson and Daniel Theis, both of whom have have been serviceable. Against the Rockets, Theis only got six minutes but Thompson manage 13 rebounds in 18 minutes. (For Theis, it came one game after he netted 17 points in 28 minutes.)
For now, it's good problem to have. But it also reeks of yet another challenge for Stevens to find out exactly what works with what has been an often-times befuddling roster.