BOSTON — Marcus Morris wasn’t scheduled to talk after the Boston Celtics’ morning shootaround Friday at the Auerbach Center. But hours after tweeting a late-night message about how the Celtics were “gonna get it together,” Morris yearned to deliver a state of the union.
An impassioned Morris spoke for four minutes, chastising himself for a shooting slump that he believes he has let affect other areas of his game, and emphatically suggesting the Celtics must — and will — figure things out before the playoffs arrive.
"I don’t think [the playoffs are] necessarily a reset button. I think we need to build some type of rhythm going into the playoffs. I don’t think it just happens,” said Morris. "I don’t think it’s a switch you can hit and then, bang, you just go undefeated in the playoffs. I think we need to start handling things.
"Guys need to start being more consistent, including myself. Like, big time for me. You know what I’m saying? I feel like I haven’t been consistent these last couple weeks and I take it upon myself to really play better, be a better leader, play harder, get the fans engaged more. Bring some soul back to this s---, man. Because these last couple games, obviously we haven’t won for a bit, you know it’s been a little bit down.”
The Celtics have lost six of their last eight games, including four in a row since the All-Star break. Boston sits fifth in the East, three games back of Philadelphia and 3.5 games behind Indiana in the quest for home-court seeding in Round 1.
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Morris, a high-volume shooter but low-volume Tweeter, shared a message late Thursday night aimed at inspiring confidence in this Celtics team.
"I don’t tweet a lot, at all,” said Morris. "And I really meant it. We gonna get this s--- together. We owe each other to play better, man. This opportunity that we’ve got, with this amount of talent that we got, man, we gotta get it together and we deserve to get it together. Guys come in here, we work our ass off, we worked our ass off this summer. It’s time to put it together, man.”
Morris admitted that “when it rains, it pours” in regards to both the team’s struggles and his own offensive funk. But he promised more energy beginning with Friday’s visit from the Washington Wizards and believes the team will figure out what’s ailed it for most of the season.
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"Very confident. Very confident in this group, very confident in myself, personally,” said Morris. "As I tweeted yesterday, we're going to get it together, man. Definitely starting tonight and just having a different energy, man. Going out there and playing loose and playing together and having fun.”
How exactly does he plan to bring some soul back to this s—?
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“Just be myself, man. There’s been times where, obviously, I haven’t been hitting my shots as much as I had early on,” said Morris. "And I think I’ve been letting that get to me and affect other parts of my game. Just, as a man, you sit back and see what I can correct. I think it’s my energy, man. Miss or make shots, it’s going to happen — guys miss all the time. But I can’t let that affect my game, let that affect my energy and my attitude. Just try to be a better leader going down the stretch because we need it.”
Morris admitted the burden of expectations has weighed heavily on this team this year but his answers Friday hinted at a player that yearns to steer this ship back on course.
“It’s easy to say that we’re going to be top in the East, you can say that, but what guys don’t understand is, when you have a lot of talent, it’s hard to have defined roles, maybe because everybody can do everything. It’s hard to do that,” said Morris. "But as we come down the stretch we have to do what’s best for the team, and that starts with me, personally, man. That’s just playing hard, or bringing more energy, interacting with the fans a little bit more just to get them into the game, get some energy in the building, then that’s what it is.
"I’m ready to do whatever it calls for in order to turn it around, whatever causes us to be more confident as a squad, I’m ready to do whatever.”
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