Thunder Assistant Monty Williams Will Miss Rest Of Season
By Randy Renner
Billy Donovan had a feeling this was coming.
He talks to his friend and Thunder lead assistant Monty Williams most everyday and lately as Williams continues to deal with the ramifications of losing his wife in a car accident, the importance of basketball compared to the well being of his children, became less and less.
“Monty just wants to be there for his children and his family and I think it’s the right thing to do,” Donovan told reporters before tonight’s game against Minnesota. Earlier today the Thunder officially announced that Williams would be out for the rest of the season to continue dealing with his personal tragedy.
“Monty has a lot on his plate right now,” Donovan said and added he wasn’t sure when, or if, Williams would return.
“I think he wants to get back to work, but he won’t do that at the expense of his kids. He’s. Great friend and I love him to death.”
Donovan is also still without Mo Cheeks who continues to recover from hip surgery. Cheeks though has been at recent practices and is slowly getting back to more duties.
All of that combined with the deaths of Thunder part-owner Aubrey McClendon and the little brother of backup guard Dion Waiters the team has had to deal with more than its share of tragedies.
“It’s been difficult, it’s been hard,” Donovan admitted. “But we have a lot of support here.”
T-Wolves Will Try To Run
Minnesota interim coach Sam Mitchell told reporters before the game he will try to push the issue tonight, “We gotta run,” he said. “They’ve got a big game in San Antonio tomorrow night so if we can stay with them we’ll be all right.”
The T-Wolves have struggled with injuries all season and are still without center Nikola Pekovic who has missed the last 16 games with a bum ankle.
Mitchell will continue to play his three young budding stars, Andrew Wiggins, Karl Anthony-Towns and Zach Lavine big minutes.
“We’ve been playing them 40-45 Minutes a game, we ask a lot of them and I really like ‘em.”
Tipoff is coming up at 7:10. Check out our Twitter feed page for live updates from The Peake and then after the game, we’ll post a full video wrapup with comments from the Thunder lockerroom.