It’s hard for a point guard to run up and down the court when it hurts to walk up and down the street.
That’s where Deron Williams found himself recently, and why he opted to get a cortisone shot to help him deal with the pain caused by the synovitis in his left ankle.
“It already feels night and day from what it was,” Williams said after yesterday’s practice. “Just walking down the street it would ache.
“Just getting the shot two days ago, it feels so much better that the inflammation is gone.”
Williams said he will be back on the practice court today, when the Nets will go through a full scrimmage.
“I could have practiced today, but they wanted to be cautious,” he said.
It has been a busy few months for the Nets point guard, who began preparing for playing on the Olympic team as soon as last season ended.
But that work — and not taking a break — caught up to Williams in London, when he first started having trouble with the ankle.
“It started hurting in the Olympics,” Williams said. “It was hurting really bad in the Olympics, [swelled] up pretty good in the Olympics and I had to get on some anti-inflammatories. I’ve been trying to strengthen it and do things to get it loose, but it seemed like throughout the course of a game it never gets loose.”
Williams, who joked he thought it was from old age, said he couldn’t dunk when jumping off his left leg because of his ankle troubles. And, with an eight-day break built into the schedule between Wednesday’s preseason finale and next week’s season opener at Barclays Center against the Knicks, this was the perfect opportunity to get some rest and try to get himself right before the season starts.
“I knew I had eight days, so it’s good to have the rest anyways,” Williams said. “I’ve been playing pretty much non-stop since last season. I didn’t take many days off this summer at all. Just little vacations here and there. But, for the most part, I’ve been working out and been doing stuff all summer, so a couple days rest isn’t going to hurt me.”
Still, Williams said while getting through the season shouldn’t be an issue, the problem is likely one that won’t completely go away until he can get it taken care of next summer.
“I’m going to have to get it cleaned up and well see after that,” Williams said. “I don’t think it will be a problem. Like I said, the cortisone shots should get me through the season.”