Don’t expect Marcus Morris’ recent comments to prompt division within the Boston Celtics’ locker room.
Morris let his frustration be heard Saturday night following the Celtics’ ugly loss to the Los Angeles Clippers at TD Garden. The veteran forward called out his teammates for playing like “individuals” while lamenting the lack of fun Boston has played with over the course of the campaign.
The ninth-year pro stood by his remarks during the Celtics’ practice Monday, and it’s clear Brad Stevens has his back. The head coach explained during his media availability why he had no problem with Morris vocalizing what was on his mind.
“One of the things that we said at the very beginning of the year was we don’t want to be a team quoted of unnamed sources,” Stevens said, as captured by MassLive. “So if you’re gonna say something, you gotta put your name next to it. And Marcus’ frustrations were obviously evident. And you know what, in a lot of ways, I thought he said a lot of stuff that you can’t argue with in the last two games. We need to be a lot better than we were in finishing out games and handling adverse situations in games and go from there. As long as we put our name next to it, I’m good.”
LIke Stevens touched upon, Morris’ assessment of the Celtics wasn’t at all flawed. Boston’s roster is too rich with talent for the team to be underperforming like it has, and Morris’ soundbite could serve as a wake-up call. The C’s only have 26 games remaining on their regular-season schedule, so they’ll need to turn things around in a hurry if they hope to enter the playoffs with any sort of momentum.
The Celtics will be hard-pressed to get off the schneid Tuesday night when they visit the new-look Philadelphia 76ers without the services of Kyrie Irving.
