Deron Williams suffered two minor injuries to his left side Sunday night against the Miami Heat and will not play Monday against the Dallas Mavericks. Kevin Garnett will also sit out for rest on the second night of a back-to-back.
With just over a minute left in the first quarter, Williams felt Norris Cole’s contact and put up a running jumper, drawing a shooting foul and tweaking his left oblique, wincing and grabbing at the area. He remained in the game, and the injury stayed with him. “Throughout the game, it was just kind of annoying,” Williams said.
Late in the fourth, Williams appeared to tweak the area again while reaching for a loose ball. He grabbing a rebound with one hand on the ensuing possession in obvious pain, and after a foul call was taken out, laying motionless on his right side on the bench. He did not return for the final 40 seconds of regulation as the Nets fell to the Heat, 88-84.
“It just locked up,” Williams explained. “Every time I would go this way (towards the cramp), it just would grab me. So I tried to stand up and get back in the game, but I couldn’t do it.”
Williams said he thought it was a separate issue — a cramp — and was just trying to stretch it out. “It was more over here,” Williams said, grabbing at his lower left ribcage. “So the doc said to kind of just treat it like a cramp.
“It doesn’t seem to be any problem. Just drink a lot of electrolytes and it should be all right.”
Williams said he “hopes” he’ll be good to go against the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, and expects he’ll play, but can’t be certain. “It feels better,” Williams said, “but still, when I start going that way, I can feel it.”
Williams finished with 13 points (5-10 FG, 1-2 3P), eight assists, and six rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench in the loss. He has come off the bench in each of the last six games as he returned from a low-grade calf strain.
