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Sixers Rival Takes Another Minor Hit With Key Injury

The Boston Celtics will miss a key piece when they face the Sixers to start the season.

Justin Grasso

Sixers Rival Takes Another Minor Hit With Key Injury
Sixers Rival Takes Another Minor Hit With Key Injury /
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Philadelphia 76ers rival the Boston Celtics are having a tough offseason. Just months after making a run to the 2022 NBA Finals, the Eastern Conference champions went into the offseason with intentions of strengthening the roster further on the road to another possible Eastern Conference championship run.

Unfortunately, Boston suffered a couple of hits lately. The Celtics added former Atlanta Hawks forward Danilo Gallinari after he was traded to and waived by San Antonio. Gallinari was set to become a key piece to Boston’s bench, but he went down with a knee injury overseas playing for Italy in EuroBasket.

After getting diagnosed with a torn ACL, Gallinari found out his Celtics debut would not occur during the 2022-2023 season. A couple of weeks later, the Celtics found out that another key player would miss some time early on as well.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Celtics big man Robert Williams will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. As a result, the young veteran is expected to have a four-to-six week recovery timetable.

With NBA training camps just a week away, Williams is guaranteed to miss training camp for the Celtics. Per Wojnarowski, Williams will also miss all of the preseason.

While Boston doesn’t anticipate having Williams out for too long, it seems he’s on pace to miss time early on in the regular season.

Last season, Williams emerged as a full-time starter in Boston. After starting in just 16 games through the first three seasons of his NBA career, Williams started in 61 games last year, averaging ten points and nine rebounds. 

The good news for the Celtics is that Williams will only miss time in the beginning of the season due to his procedure. Since it’s a long NBA season, the Celtics will have plenty of time to get the defensive standout re-acclimaited with his team as they gun for another conference title. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.

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Justin Grasso
JUSTIN GRASSO

Title: Credentialed writer/reporter covering the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated’s FanNation Email: JustinGrasso32@Gmail.com Location: Philadelphia, PA Expertise: Reporting, insight, and analysis on the Sixers and the NBA  Justin Grasso is a credentialed writer and publisher covering the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated’s FanNation.  Grasso got his start in sports media in 2016 with FantasyPros, working the news desk, providing game-by-game player analysis and updates on the Portland Trail Blazers and the Golden State Warriors. By 2017, he joined FanSided’s Philadelphia Eagles site as a staff writer. After spending one season covering the Eagles as a staff writer, Grasso was promoted to become the site’s Co-Editor. For the next two NFL seasons, he covered the Eagles closely before broadening his NFL coverage. For a brief stint, Grasso covered the NFL on a national basis after joining Heavy.com as an NFL news desk writer. In 2019, Grasso joined the 76ers' beat on a part-time basis, stepping into a role with South Jersey’s 97.3 ESPN. Ahead of the 2019-2020 NBA season, he concluded a three-year stint covering the Eagles and joined the Sixers beat full-time. Grasso has covered the 76ers exclusively since then for Sports Illustrated. He is a member of the Pro Basketball Writer’s Association.  Twitter: @JGrasso_ Instagram: @JGrassoNBA

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