Twin Powers: Marcus Morris Getting Strength from Markief

BOSTON -- There were times in Boston’s Game 2 win over Cleveland when Marcus Morris wasn’t quite himself on the floor.

He could sense that something was off.

He would glance into the stands, see his twin Markieff Morris and just like that -- Marcus was back on track.

“We got that twin telepathy thing going on,” Marcus Morris told NBC Sports Boston. “I can be in a game and I can glance at him, and he’ll look at me and . . .  “Great move, get to the basket next play.' And it’ll be real subtle. But we’ve been knowing each other forever. It comes easy."

Morris added, “A lot of people don’t know what’s going on. Even when we talk, we’re having a conversation and a person standing right next to us would have no idea of what we’re saying or talking about. It’s almost like a secret communication.”

While there will certainly be some skeptics who question the connection between twins in general, there are some pretty unusual circumstances that transpired that are, to be candid, hard to imagine being just a coincidence.

Markieff, who plays for the Washington Wizards, and Marcus were both out with different injuries to start the season. Markieff was on the mend from hernia surgery while Marcus had been dealing with left knee soreness.

And yet they made their regular-season debuts for their respective teams on the same day.

“That’s crazy to me,” Marcus Morris said at the time. “You got a better chance of hitting the lottery than (twins making their season debut on the same day). He goes out with an injury and he comes back and plays a couple hours before me on national television.”

The two were also fined by the NBA during the two separate playoff games on the same day, April 21.

Markieff was hit with a $25,000 fine for his role in an incident involving Toronto’s OG Anunby, which included Markieff shoving official Ken Mauer. On the same day, Marcus was fined $15,000 for criticizing officials.

Having his twin around at games has been nothing but a blessing for Marcus, who has been playing some of his best basketball of the postseason in this series -- something he acknowledges is due in part to Markieff.

“Him being on the side is definitely helping me, talking to me, making sure I’m doing the stuff I need to do in games,” Morris said. “It’s like having another coach on the court.”

And the conversations as you might expect, extend off the court as well.

“Sometimes on the court, offensively I might get stagnant, not active enough,” Morris said. “So he might come to me and say, ‘I counted three back-cuts you might have had,’  or ‘three rebounds you could have had,’ things like that.”

But Morris’ imprint on this series has been primarily at the defensive end of the floor as the primary defender on LeBron James.

While LeBron James has been a dominant scorer throughout this series, Morris has made him work for all his points.

In the first two games, Morris has defended James more than any Celtic in each game for 39 and 33 possessions, respectively.

James has scored a total of 22 points on Morris while shooting 8-for-23 (34.8 percent) from the field with 13 assists and 5 turnovers.

At 6-foot-9, 240 pounds, Morris has the size, length and lateral quickness to contest most of the shots taken by James.


And maintaining that edge to stay physical, is among the many messages relayed to him by his brother Markieff in a way that Marcus says, only he can comprehend.

“I’m a student of the game, watching constant, constant film, getting tips from everybody,” Marcus said.

That includes his brother Markieff.

“For sure,” Marcus said. “He’s definitely been helpful to me.”