Ainge on dust-up: Move on
Brown-Morris flap nothing to fret over
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Celtics have moved on to central Florida from Thursday night’s loss in Miami. And Danny Ainge is hoping, too, that Jaylen Brown and Marcus Morris have moved on from their confrontation during the second quarter vs. the Heat.
During a timeout, video posted on social media by a fan sitting behind the Celts’ bench showed Brown and Morris quarreling. When the talk appeared to get more heated and they got closer, Marcus Smart stepped between the two and Morris shoved Brown as they were being separated.
The situation seemed to be precipitated by an earlier sequence where Brown was blocked by Derrick Jones Jr., who completed the play by taking a pass from Dion Waiters for a fast break layup. Brown was slow to get back on defense, and Morris clapped in his direction, exhorted him and said something in response to the events.
The “conversation” clearly got more intense during the timeout less than a minute later with the Celtics trailing the Heat, 35-32.
And while such incidents aren’t uncommon in the NBA, the optics weren’t great as the Celtics seek to match their game to expectations.
“I honestly didn’t think anything of it,” Ainge, the C’s president of basketball operations, said via phone yesterday. “I like Marcus’ and Jaylen’s character and personalities and feistiness, and, like, I just think nothing of something like this.
“It’s something where those things happen to best friends even. Heck, I remember those things happening to (Rajon) Rondo and Perk (Kendrick Perkins). You know, they’re best buddies, but it’s just the heat of the battle, and I didn’t have a second thought about it.”
Ainge clearly was not a fan of Brown being lax getting back on defense, and neither, it seems, is Brad Stevens, who removed him from the game. Brown did not return until the last 37 seconds of the third quarter, though Stevens said that was because the group on the floor was engineering a comeback. Brown played just 13:50.
“Everybody has those moments, and those are way more of a concern,” said Ainge of the defensive lapse. “But I know that my coach calls guys out on those things and shows them on film and manages those things really well. But, you know, sometimes it’s good to have team leadership and call guys out on things that they don’t like seeing in the course of a game. I think there can be benefits from getting called out on that by a teammate. I don’t have a problem with it.
“I just feel like in (Thursday) night’s game — I don’t sense it all of the time — but it did seem like (Thursday) night that, and not just Jaylen, there were a few possessions that I noticed where missed shots led into bad defense. And we can’t just have our energy determined on how many shots we make. It’s got to be consistent. We’ve got to dig down and become the defensive team that we were there in the third quarter. There’s a remarkable difference in how we played when we were making a nice run defensively and the way we started the game. There was a big difference.”
According to player sources, the Celtics have had their share of disagreements this season. Usually, it’s been said that one player will make a critical remark about another’s play, and the latter will get defensive and say something in response. But in all cases, it’s been pointed to as a positive that the issues do not linger into the next day.
Ainge wouldn’t address that directly, but said, “We have guys with good character. We have good guys. So I’m not worried about those things building and festering.
“I’ve had a few guys shove me in my day,” he added with a laugh. “We all got called out as players by teammates, and we did our share of calling out teammates when things weren’t going right.”
But because this incident was more public than others, it is bound to receive greater scrutiny as the Celtics continue their road trip against the Magic tonight.