Head coach Joe Mazzulla was cagey pre-game about re-inserting Robert Williams back into the starting lineup. With the stakes of a do-or-die Game 6 on the road, you would have thought that he was just making a change between soup or salad as an appetizer.
“Just to give us a different look. At his best, Rob gives us a lift, especially on the defensive end,” Mazzulla said.
But in a series that has been defined by adjustments and adjustments to adjustments, Williams rejoining Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Al Horford — the vaunted fivesome that fielded one of the nastiest defenses in the modern NBA — was a monster move and the catalyst to Boston’s 95-86 win against the 76ers to force a Game 7 on Sunday.