The Los Angeles Clippers bounced back from their blowout loss to the New Orleans Pelicans with a 109-99 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night. The win coincided with a change implemented by head coach Tyronn Lue, inserting Marcus Morris into the starting lineup in place of Nicolas Batum.

Lue had been preaching and begging his team to bring a stronger defensive mindset starting at tipoff, but the Clippers have been inconsistent in bringing that energy night in and night out. That's where Marcus Morris came in.

“I've been thinking about it for a while, just waiting for the right time, and just did it tonight,” Tyronn Lue said after the win. “I really wanted to do it after a couple wins, because I don't want to make it seem like it's Nic's fault that we lost, because Nic has been great, Nic has been phenomenal all year. But just last night, just thinking about it, talking through it with my coaching staff, and it was time to get Marcus jumpstarted, get him going, and tonight was a good start.”

Morris scored 14 points, grabbed six rebounds, and dished four assists on the night. While the box score itself doesn't show anything flashy, it was Morris' timely buckets, sound defense, and vocal leadership that the Clippers found themselves needing.

“It felt good,” Marcus Morris said of his third start this season. “Me and Ty Lue have a great relationship outside of basketball, so he was just picking the right time and after last night’s game, (something) real late, probably like 3:00 in the morning, he was like, ‘It’s time to get back in there. Need you to wake up a little more.' Felt like I was a little — I ain’t gonna say the word, but felt like I [needed a spark], so he wanted me back out there, he wanted me to bring a lot of energy, just be the leader he knows I am.”

According to Lue, the move is not expected to be situational or temporary. Marcus Morris is now the full-time starter, even when Serge Ibaka and Patrick Beverley return to the lineup.

The Clippers may have lost six of their last nine games before Monday's win over Dallas, but Morris doesn't feel like it's anything to be overly concerned about. When prompted about the recent inconsistencies and losses, Morris was blunt.

“Honestly, I don’t think it’s a struggle,” Marcus Morris responded. “Every game that’s happened, we're beating ourselves. These teams that are beating us aren’t better than us. I can tell you that straightforward. We're beating ourselves. We’re gonna continue to get better with our team. Win, lose, or draw, we gotta play our style of basketball. And some games we're gonna lose. Some games, teams go through tough patches. That’s what makes a championship team. Nobody’s worried about that. Guys can say what they want. We’re gonna continue to get better, continue to build great habits, and come playoff time, we’re gonna put our best foot forward.

“It's a long season, can't be perfect the entire year,” Marcus Morris continued. “You know we've had some times where everybody's like the Clippers gonna win a championship. There's times where Clippers aren't, they're gonna go out in the first round. We're worried about what we got going. Let them talk all the shit they want, let everybody be critics, everybody want to have an opinion, that's just how it goes when you cover the game. You know, it's all about the get back for us.”

The Clippers will get another crack at the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night. Patrick Beverley did not join the team on the trip and will be out, but Serge Ibaka has a chance at returning to the lineup. As we've seen, the wing trio of Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and Marcus Morris intrigues Tyronn Lue enough to keep moving forward.

It'll be interesting to see if the Marcus Morris move gives the Clippers the spark they need to start reeling off consecutive wins for the first time in over a month.