Marcus Morris – A Great Defender?
Yesterday, in the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals, Marcus Morris got the first start of his playoff career. As Morris is a bit of a trash talker, he announced that he wanted to defend LeBron James and would do a good job. “Personally, I think I’m probably the best guy defending him in the league, outside of Kawhi Leonard” (ESPN). This was not the first time in the playoffs Marcus was looking for a confrontation. During Game 4 of the previous series, he gestured the Celtics’ 3-0 lead against Philadelphia to Joel Embiid, who was trying to provoke him (and failed).
But, contrary what people might’ve expected, Morris stayed true to his word, and he and his team did a great job on defending LeBron in the first game. LeBron only scored 15 points, where he averaged 34 points in the first two rounds. On top of that, Morris scored 21 points and was very present on offense, meaning that LeBron had to put in a lot of energy in defense, as well as trying to lead the offense as he normally does. This made Morris an important asset for the Celtics.
Morris’ NBA career started in 2011, when he was drafted with the 14th pick by the Houston Rockets. He had to sit and wait about five minutes longer than his twin brother Markieff, as he was chosen by the Phoenix Suns with the 13th pick. Two seasons later, Marcus joined the Suns, and the Morris brothers became the second pair of brothers who played for the same team (and actually were on the court together.
Last Summer, after his seventh season in the NBA, Marcus Morris was traded to the Celtics, as Boston needed to clear cap space to be able to sign Gordon Hayward to the team. The Celtics chose to go for Morris because he was a promising player who could definitely be an asset to the team. They even expected that he could make the step to being a starter for the Celtics. He had to change his game a bit, as he mostly played as a shooting forward with the Pistons, but the Celtics wanted him to play more on the power forward position, as he was quite versatile and 2.06m. Morris, as a great defender, could defend players on a lot of positions, where his bigger opponents would have more trouble to stop him.
This season, Morris, unfortunately, could only play 54 games during the regular season, due to a lingering knee injury. But, luckily for the Celtics, Morris is ready to go in the playoffs. Now, he’ll have to prove that he can keep up this kind of performances for the rest of the post-season. But, the Celtics only have a 1-0 lead, and they still have a long way to go before they’ll have a chance to reach the Finals.
