It’s not easy slowing down LeBron James, but Boston Celtics forward Marcus Morris is doing an admirable job of containing the Cleveland Cavaliers’ superstar in the ongoing Eastern Conference semifinals.
Morris is actually backing up his bold talk prior to the series when he said that outside of Kawhi Leonard, he is the best defender anyone can put on James. While most people wrote that statement off as nothing more than a confidence-booster for Morris, the 28-year-old beefy banger has proven he could play solid defense on James. The numbers are even in favor of Morris, as James is just 4-for-14 from the field and 0-for-4 from the 3-point distance when covered by Morris thus far in the series.
Marcus Morris has been one of the few players who can slow down LeBron James. In two games, James has only 11 points on 4-14 shooting when being defended by Morris pic.twitter.com/UuPqxsF1vv
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 16, 2018
Morris is also not keeping the key behind his success in defending James a secret, as he told Jay King of The Athletic that it’s all about taking The King out of his comfort zone by playing rough with him.
“Me just leaning on LeBron for 15 seconds that possession, I think that helps. It’s me being physical, anybody being physical, I think that helps toward the entire game.
Of course, completely taking the Cavs superstar out of the equation is a task that is next to impossible, so for Morris, the best way to limit James is by wearing him down early in the game and hope that he’s too gassed in the later parts of the contest to keep it going.
In Game 2, James scored 21 points in the first quarter, but only had 17 points more in the second half. He still finished with 42 points, but he barely factored in the end game.
Morris will look to contain James once again this Saturday in Game 3 of the series in Cleveland.
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