This is why Celtics traded for Morris. Go to work big guy

[Chris22]

Does Stevens start Morris over Baynes against Cleveland?  Morris has been shooting very poorly for 3-4 weeks now.  If you start Morris what does that do the the scoring on the 2nd unit?  It will be very interesting.  No one is going to slow down LBJ but you can't let Thompson swallow up offensive rebounds and you can't let Korver and Love score 25.  LBJ can get his but if the C's can do a good job on the other Cavs this will be interesting.

Baynes is our best defense against Lebron. Remember how Perkins beat up on Lebron years ago? You need someone bigger than the Lebron to deal with him inside.

[celticinorlando]

Have to think Morris will be better. He was terrible on offense in the Sixers series.

[Who]

I want Jaylen on LeBron. Morris is fine for short stretches but not as primary LeBron defender.

Jaylen has better lateral quickness and can stay in front of LeBron's ball-handling better.

[rondofan1255]

time for some positive regression

[Erik]

Have to think Morris will be better. He was terrible on offense in the Sixers series.

I think that Embiid did get into his head.

Marcus Morris is the only player we have on our team that is susceptible to stupidity. Maybe Rozier too. The rest are way too intelligent to pay attention to bull****.

[keevsnick]

I want Jaylen on LeBron. Morris is fine for short stretches but not as primary LeBron defender.

Jaylen has better lateral quickness and can stay in front of LeBron's ball-handling better.

I don't think thats a bad idea, but I think we need Jaylen out on the perimeter chasing around their shooters. He's arguably the best guy on the team at that. Of course this assumes that Morris actually shows up and plays D on Lebron because Tatum isnt strong enough yet and Horford has to my memory gotten toasted when he tries to guard Lebron (am I wrong on this?)
 
On the plus sdie I think we can get buckets on this team. Toronot put up points, just couldnt stop them at all. We have a chnace to slow this team down. If we can't, nobody can.

[Tr1boy]

a glimpse of Morris defense of Lebron....here it is

though this compilation was 3 years ago,  you can see that Morris doesn't back down. Is Physical with him.  Wears him down.

I would also have Semi guard him 94 feet away from the basket from time to time.  This is what the Pacers did.  Just keep chopping at the tree, tire him out as much as possible. Every second counts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h1D73wTzVY

[Tr1boy]

I mean that is as good as you get in trying to guard Lebron

Its like Morris doesn't fall for his fakes.  Stays back just enough so that Lebron can't explode past him. Makes Lebron into a jump shooter but always has a hand in his face. Especially around the chin.   

If Morris can guard him or slow him down 1 on 1 where no double team is required.

This will be HUGE

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

The time has come.




EXECUTE ORDER 13...

[Tr1boy]

The time has come.




EXECUTE ORDER 13...

exactly. I think he will

He has been good defensively for the Celts this season in the playoffs.  People may not notice (because he is not flashy) , but if you look at the details, he is a tough/good defender

[Kevins Gamble]

I think Morris will start based on the Cleveland lineup. The only time I see Baynes playing is when Tristan Kardashian plays. I am most worried about Love. He seems to kill us scoring and rebounding every time. I think Brad will hopefully devise a defense specifically aimed at limiting Love. LeBron is getting his regardless but hopefully we make him shoot from the outside rather than driving in for layups/dunks. I think (like Redick) we can limit Korver and the other one-dimensional guys but the key is Love. Morris you HAVE TO PLAY BETTER starting NOW!

Well..................not every time.

[Eddie20]

Well, the reason we traded for Morris is because we needed to shed Bradley's contract in order to sign Hayward. Ainge likely took the best player he could, while the Pistons made for a great partner because KCP was a free agent at the time. In a vacuum Bradley is the superior player, but the trade proved beneficial as we later lost Hayward and then traded away Crowder.


The 3 defenders we'll probably see most on James are Brown, Semi, and Morris. Using Semi on James is scary in that it allows James to not only rest defensively, but also play centerfield where he's able to play passing lanes and provide help defense. He's obviously a very intelligent player, so this is a concern.

These were the season averages of Morris and Semi vs the Cavs:

              MPG    FG%   PPG    RPG   APG  SPG  BPG
Morris     25.0    38.9    10.0   3.5    2.0   0.5    0.5

Semi       18.7   .097    1.3     1.0     0.3   0.7   0.0


Quite simply, they need to be much better offensively. You can't have them play nearly 44 minutes a game and combine for 11.3 PPG and 4.3 RPG with dreadful shooting.


On the other hand, James has played and shot well vs the Celtics. The MPG are a little light than what we'll see because his minutes were limited in 2 of the 3 games (2 blowouts - 1W, 1L), so that hurt his overall raw numbers.


              MPG    FG%   PPG    RPG   APG  SPG  BPG
James     34.0    53.7    24.0   10.3   8.3   0.7   1.3

[kozlodoev]

Best role defender you could find to guard Lebron. Also throw him a steady diet of Semi, Brown.

As long as you dont let Lebron score and pass at will, Celts have a good shot to make this a series.

So he's just going to stand there?

[Big333223]

I have a weird gut feeling that he’ll be huge for us this series

I'm feeling the same.

I think he's going to be called on the guard Lebron a fair amount and I think the challenge will focus him a little bit. As terrible as he was offensively in the Philly series he was pretty good on defense, still. He guarded Ben Simmons a fair amount and was a big part of taking him out of the game.

Mook is streaky. He's been shooting terribly for about 3 weeks now. About time to start streaking the other way.

[Eddie20]

Best role defender you could find to guard Lebron. Also throw him a steady diet of Semi, Brown.

As long as you dont let Lebron score and pass at will, Celts have a good shot to make this a series.

So he's just going to stand there?

lol

Well, he can still wave his arms and run in place.