Deron Williams misses game with sprained left ankle
Nets guard Deron Williams controls the ball against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first half of an NBA basketball game at Barclays Center. (Jan. 4, 2014) Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Just when the Nets seemed to be finding their rhythm, one of Deron Williams' troublesome ankles has begun to bark again, and the point guard sat out Monday night's game against the Hawks.
Nets coach Jason Kidd said that after Williams informed team trainer Tim Walsh that he discovered some swelling Sunday night, he had an MRI Monday and was diagnosed with a sprained ankle.
Kidd said Williams wanted to play but that the team decided to be cautious. Williams will be re-evaluated Tuesday.
Williams has sprained his left ankle three times this season, missing 12 games. The Nets tried to protect him in the preseason by limiting him to one game, hoping that the right ankle injury he suffered while working out in Utah in September wouldn't linger. But for Williams, who needed a platelet-rich plasma procedure and several cortisone shots to calm down his ankle last season, it appears to be another injury-ravaged campaign.
"I think it's tough, especially [given] that he's playing at a high level right now," Kidd said, "and then how much the team has gone in a different direction, in a sense of winning games with his output. So him being out, he's probably more or less frustrated."
Williams led the Nets to a victory over the Cavaliers on Saturday, scoring 21 points and adding six assists. In his absence, the Nets recalled Tyshawn Taylor from their D-League affiliate in Springfield, Mass., and he arrived at about 5 p.m., completing a whirlwind 24 hours for the second-year guard.
Taylor had made it to Springfield at about 11 p.m. Sunday and expected to be "there for at least a week, and was there for like 12 hours or less."
Imagine Taylor's surprise when he got yanked off the court in Springfield as he was hoisting jumpers Monday morning.
"Yeah, I was in practice," Taylor said. "I had shot around, I stretched. I was getting ready to scrimmage."
Then he said he was told: " 'Wait, wait. Get off the court,' " Taylor said, mimicking how things went down. " 'Wait, wait, wait. You can't practice, you can't practice.' I'm like, 'What did I do now?' "
Nothing, other than earn another trip back to Brooklyn for who knows how long.
