Morris twins return to action on same night

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Celtics notebook: Morris twins return to action on same night







Steve Bulpett Saturday, November 04, 2017

Credit: Associated Press

FAMILY REUNION: Marcus Morris (right), acquired from the Pistons during the offseason, made his season debut last night for the Celtics against the Thunder, while Morris’ twin brother Markieff also made his season debut last night for Washington.




OKLAHOMA CITY — There may be something to the whole twins thing, because both Marcus and Markieff Morris made their season debuts last night.

Celtic Marcus is coming off left knee soreness, while Washington’s Markieff is returning from a sports hernia.


“I’m excited to come back,” Marcus Morris said before scoring seven of his nine points in the second half of the Celtics’ 101-94 comeback win over the Thunder. “It’s funny, my brother is coming back today, too, so that’s crazy to me. You got a better chance of hitting the lottery than seeing this. He goes out with an injury and he comes back and plays a couple hours before me on national television. It’s something different.”

Morris was cold when he came off the bench, but Brad Stevens started him in the second half, and he provided some early offense there.


“It felt pretty good, for the minutes I played (18),” Morris said. “It felt like I played longer until I looked at the box. My wind was actually a lot better than what I thought. I just missed a couple shots. Pretty good though, trying to find my rhythm, trying to fit in the offense, trying to mix up my cuts and drives, stuff like that.”

Said Stevens: “I think the hardest part is you know that throughout the course of the season we’re better with Marcus Morris. He’s going to be an important part of our team so there’s no good time to play your first game, right? You could tell that, in the second half, he got so much more comfortable than in the first half. You’ve got to have that first half sometime. I’m glad that he got a game under his belt, and I think he really helped us win the game. I thought his play in the second half was really good on both ends.”

Morris will play one of the remaining two games on the trip, either tomorrow in Orlando or Monday in Atlanta.




Tatum makes impact

It appears as though Jayson Tatum is reasonably secure in his starting role — a none too shabby feat for a 19-year-old rookie.

“That doesn’t matter as much as how well he’s playing,” said Stevens in reference to Tatum starting. “I just think he’s got a maturity level that’s pretty unique for that age. And I don’t think that he could be at the position he is without that, even though he’s got talent and skills. But it’s his emotional maturity that I think has allowed him to just kind of move day to day and improve and impact us.

“You know, I thought that run in Miami was really good when he made plays for us, and then I thought it was really good the next night when he didn’t get a lot of opportunities against San Antonio, but he still was impactful. So he’s shown a lot of good stuff there.”

It will be interesting to see how Morris’ return eventually impacts Tatum.

“It’s more about how we want to play going against particular opponents,” Stevens said. “But Jayson’s played great. I think that when you look at Marcus, Marcus is a guy that’s played a lot of his career at the 3, but also significant amount at the 4. But Jayson’s played both, and as you know we don’t care about positions. It’s more about those guys are wings for us, so we’ll ask them to play together quite a bit I’m sure.”




Gators reunite


Mention former Florida pupil Al Horford to OKC coach Billy Donovan and just sit back.

“The thing I would say about Al, and it’s so hard to put a measuring stick on it, but he has the ‘it’ factor,” Donovan said. “You can’t pinpoint it; he’s just a winner. He can figure out how to get inside any team and figure out a way to make the team better in the locker room chemistry-wise and on the court chemistry-wise. He’s really unique from that standpoint. One of the best leaders I’ve ever been around, one of the best players I’ve ever had a chance to coach, really, really smart, very, very bright. His game has always every year — even the years I had him — gotten better. He’s that kind of player. . . . I was fortunate enough to share in two national championships with him.” . . .


While Thunder star Paul George has been in regular contact with Gordon Hayward since the latter’s injury, Russell Westbrook was asked if he’s reached out to the Celtic.

“I don’t have his number,” Westbrook said. “No, I haven’t. But, you know, when I saw the injury, I definitely just bowed my head and prayed for him and his family and just prayed that he recovers very quickly.”



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