Lou Williams Sidelined

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Lou Williams was, in the NBA world, in the stratosphere. And, inadvertently knocked out of orbit, he was suddenly falling, a comet about to plow into the hard, wooden floor of Madison Square Garden.</p>

This was Saturday night, 3 minutes, 30 seconds to go in the third quarter against the New York Knicks. One moment Williams, the 6-foot guard, was driving hard, rising, as if he were on an escalator, to the basket. The next moment, he was bumped by the Knicks' David Lee and was plummeting.</p>

"I know when I took the hit, I just kind of closed my eyes and hoped for the best," the 76ers third-year guard said before last night's 100-88 win over the Houston Rockets. "Once I hit the ground, I just kind of did a mental check, just 'Let's see where the pain's coming from.' The good thing was, I was talking to myself, so it probably couldn't have been a concussion or anything like that."</p>

He didn't just land, he thudded to the floor, his neck, back and right shoulder seemingly the most vulnerable areas. But it wasn't until after the Sixers completed their 101-90 victory that he realized where the real problem was.</p>

The media found out yesterday as Williams - the rest of his body parts functioning reasonably normally - was placed on the inactive list with a non-displaced fracture of the distal phalanx of his right great toe.</p>

Translation: He has a small fracture in his right big toe and was listed as day-to-day.</p>

"I can walk around and everything, but not to the best of my ability," said Williams, wearing sneakers. "If was playing tonight, I'd probably just be in the way."</p>

A potentially disastrous moment had dissolved into a conversation piece, as in, exactly how did he land on his back and somehow fracture a toe?</p>

"You watch the [replay], my foot just crashed down head-on," Williams explained.</p>

"Just shows how flexible he is, being a young guy with young muscles," Kevin Ollie suggested. "I imagine if I went down like that, my neck would be all messed up."</p>

Several Sixers marveled at how high Williams had been.</p>

"I told Lou that's why I don't jump that high," Kyle Korver said. "When I get hit, I just run into somebody. When he gets hit, his feet go flying over the rim. Your heart kind of skips a beat at first; he was way up there. At first, I was really scared watching him; it could have been really bad. I don't know how it's his foot [that's injured], not his head. Something had to get hurt on that fall."</p>

Rookie Jason Smith, listed at 7-foot, was jogging to the scorer's table to check in as Williams elevated.</p>

"I looked, and his body was at least vertical with me," Smith said. "His head was that high. I just said, 'Oh, my goodness.' I don't know how the [toe injury] happened."</p>

Whatever happened, however it happened, Williams insisted he would not be in any way inhibited on his next foray to the rim.</p>

"Actually, I'm going to go harder," he said. "Next time, I'm going to try and dunk the basketball, not lay it up."</div></p>

Source: Philly.com</p>