Williams accepts dare from Bucks
Career day shooting gives lift
Grant Williams has been overlooked, doubted and disrespected since he entered the league in 2019. He struggled for minutes at first, had trouble breaking into the Celtics’ rotation with much regularity and couldn’t seem to find a role on an up-and-coming squad.
But he never quit, never stopped refining and improving his game to become the critical 3-andD the Celtics needed. He’s taken that role to a new level in these playoffs. On Sunday, he proved the naysayers wrong with a signature performance.
Sunday’s Game 7 victory at TD Garden will be remembered in Boston as the Grant Williams Game. The third-year forward had the game of his life, with a career-high 27 points behind a careerhigh seven 3-pointers in the Celtics’ 109-81 demolition of the Bucks. On top of his unrelenting defense of superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, it was Williams’ shot making that was the key in sending the C’s to the Eastern Conference Finals.
“Grant won us a playoff game tonight in Game 7,” Jayson Tatum said.
It was hard to imagine Sunday’s performance when Williams was a rookie, when his outside shot wasn’t close to developed and he missed the first 25 3-point attempts of his career. On Sunday, he took 18 attempts from downtown, breaking Steph Curry’s record of 15 attempts in a Game 7.
No one — not even his teammates — could have foreseen that coming on Sunday.
“I would have called you a liar, for sure,” Jaylen Brown said. “That’s what they were giving us. It was almost like they were using that defender to stop me and Jayson from getting to what we wanted, so we had to keep making the pass and he was wide open. We trust all our guys. Grant is a good shooter and he came through.
“Call him Grant Curry now”
Added Celtics coach Ime Udoka on Williams shattering Curry’s record: “Two Charlotte shooters, I’m sure he’ll gloat about it, for sure.”
Williams was being dared to shoot, with the Bucks strategizing their defensive gameplan to make role players like Williams and Derrick White beat them. It was working at first, as the Bucks jumped out to an early lead. The shots weren’t falling.
Williams, at one point, was hesitant to release from 3 even though he had made an early one and his looks were wide open. On one sequence in the second quarter, he passed up on a shot and heard about it from Brown in the next timeout.
“I told him he has to shoot it,” Brown said. “I know that’s what they want, but it’s a wide open shot. He’s a good shooter.
“If they’re off that far, you have to shoot it, or you have to go into the action right away. But preferably, Brook Lopez is in the paint, take that. It’s the right shot.”
He heard the same message from everyone in the huddle, including Udoka.
“I told him, ‘let it fly’,” Udoka said. “They’re disrespecting you more tonight than earlier than in the series. … I basically told him, shoot the ball. What else can you do? Take the shot that you’re giving you.”
Williams got the message, and proceeded to shoot it at a record level from behind the arc.
“They’re encouraging it, so why not take advantage?” Williams said. “Each one, as time went on, got more comfortable. I guess Ime made a joke, I took 18. That’s the most 3s I’ve probably shot in my life. It was fun. It was just great that we got a win.
“As I settled in, I was able to take my time on the shots and not really rush. Even if guys were flying at me, I still took my time and knocked it down.”
With every 3, Williams’ confidence continued to grow. When Tatum picked up his fourth foul with 7:44 left in the third quarter, Williams’ shot-making — he made two triples during that stretch to the end of the period — helped them not only maintain the lead, but extend it.
The performance may have been unexpected, but vitally important in a series where role players had defining moments that carried the C’s to another Eastern Conference Finals. It was Al Horford in Game 4. On Sunday, it was Williams’ show.
“He took more shots than anybody on the team. I think that’s a first,” Tatum said. “He took 18 threes. I told him, don’t get used to that. But obviously tonight we needed it. He came up big, played amazing. … In the playoffs, you need that. You need guys to come off the bench to be a star in their role.”