MIAMI - A day after rescuing the Celtics from an early deficit, Eric Williams was kept out of practice. Williams came off the injured list Tuesday and paced a 17-2 first-quarter run that took the C's off a 13-4 Miami hook. He came to yesterday's workout with ice already on his sore left knee.

``We don't know if Eric will be able to play back-to-back games for us,'' coach Jim O'Brien said. ``We'll have to see. To me, the fact that he can't practice (yesterday) really hurts what we're trying to accomplish, because he really is a leader from the standpoint of that defensive mindset. Not having him available to us hurts us.