-- Rajon Rondo's night just got a little bit easier.

The Philadelphia 76ers just announced that their star point guard Louis Williams (17.4 points, 5.1 assists) will miss tonight's game with a fractured jaw.

Williams fractured his jaw against the Washington Wizards last night.

"I was spitting up blood every timeout," Williams said. "I thought it was my tooth so I didn't think it was as serious as it was. I wanted to play. There wasn't really a lot of pain involved. I was playing on adrenillian obviously. I knew something was wrong but I didn't know to this magnitude.

"What I wanted was something to numb the pain so I was looking for something to help with the pain. I just wanted to continue to fight through it. You go through the protocals and get the x-rays and this and that and when it came back there was a big line on my jaw. That set the alarms off right there...Then the bleeding didn't stop until this morning. I couldn't sleep last night. I was up until 7 o'clock in the morning with pain."

Williams said that he does not know how long he will be out for. Philadelphia coach Eddie Jordan said that Williams will "be evaluated extensively tomorrow and that we'll have a better indication of his timetable. It certainly seems to be a fractured jawbone."

Jordan said that Williams will be missed because "he's been a terrific leader. He's got a great demeanor on the floor. He's really picked the ball up and played very well defensively...He's been a big catalyst for us."

"This is a brand new thing so we are just trying to get adjusted to it," Williams said.