Marcus Morris Sr. Assesses Celtics Title Chances After Boston’s Game 5 Win

BOSTON — Marcus Morris Sr. has played in the conference finals twice over the course of his lengthy NBA career. One of those times came with the Boston Celtics.

Morris was in his first of two seasons with the Celtics when Boston advanced to the Eastern Conference finals in 2018. Morris saw the Celtics get back to the conference finals Wednesday night, except this time the 34-year-old forward was on the opposite bench.

Boston dispatched the Cleveland Cavaliers with a 113-98 win in Game 5 at TD Garden to make its sixth East Finals appearance in the last eight seasons.

And Morris believes that might not be the last stop for the Celtics this season.

“A couple years back being a part of this team with a lot of the guys that are actually here now,” Morris said. “They got some great players over there, man. They got some dogs. I think they’re definitely suited to make a good run. They get big fella (Kristaps Porzingis) back, I think they’re definitely a problem.”

There aren’t many holdovers left on the Celtics from when Morris played in Boston. In fact, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are the only members of the team who played with Morris for both seasons when he was with the Celtics. Al Horford played alongside Morris during his final year with the franchise.

Morris certainly is impressed by the growth of Tatum, who was just a 19-year-old rookie when the two first played together. Tatum has now become one of the faces of the NBA and closed out the Cavaliers with a star performance. He came close to securing a triple-double as he scored 25 points on 9-for-16 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds and nine assists.

“I think it’s just more than this year,” Morris said about Tatum’s ascension. “He’s been super aggressive. He’s being a leader. It’s just good to watch him grow, man. Just having a relationship with him when he came in as a rookie and just seeing how quickly things change.”