Morris, Brown move on from argument

ORLANDO, Fla. — Leave it to Brad Stevens to find the silver lining in the Marcus Morris-Jaylen Brown altercation during Thursday’s loss in Miami. Morris had barked at Brown for not getting back on defense, and the two continued to bicker during a timeout soon after, as caught on video by a fan and posted on social media. At one point, Marcus Smart had to step in between the two as Morris shoved Brown. To begin with, Stevens said, “I mean, I think when you’re part of a team for 82 games, it’s not that big of a deal. I’ve been through a lot of different teams, some of which have taken time to become a team, some of which have been a team from Day 1, and they’ve all had moments like that.” Then the coach grinned slightly and took in the incident from a different angle. “I looked at it as, everyone else was watching Marcus Morris and Jaylen. How about Smart breaking it up?” he said of his generally hottempered guard. “Talk about growth, holy smokes. I thought he would be in the middle of one of those. That was pretty good.” Speaking before the Celtics’ 105-103 loss to the Magic, Morris, who was seated next to Brown as they laced their sneakers, said the issue was worked out that night. “Whatever happened is between me and my teammate,” he said. “It was all basketball related. As competitive as we both are, tensions can get high. But that’s all it was. We moved past it after the timeout. “I feel as though I’m one of the leaders on this team, so if I have an engagement with any of my teammates we all know that it’s basketball related and it goes nothing past the court. So it’s just two guys that both care about the game, and that’s all it was. Brown was more brief on the subject. “Nothing major. Let it go. Move on,” he said. As for it being a bit out of the ordinary because it was made public on social media, he said, “It’s not weird. You see it all the time. But in this case, nothing major, just move on.” Asked how he and Morris worked things out, Brown said, “Yeah, we talked about, we moved on. Just focused on Orlando, focused on keep playing some good basketball. We played some good basketball prior to Miami. We’ve got to get back to it.” Brown had two points on 1-for-5 shooting against the Heat and played sparingly after being removed during the aforementioned timeout. As for whether it was a frustrating night for him, he said, “Um, no. Nothing major. Let it go. Move on.” Morris stressed the importance of players holding each other accountable. “To be a good team and the team we want to be, we have to be able to be open with each other and be able to discuss stuff that’s going on on the court,” he said. “And if it leads to a little bumping and pushing and shoving, I mean, what is it? It’s nothing. You get past that type of stuff and keep going.” So Morris saw the situation as a positive — with one exception. “Yeah, I mean the shoving and all that, that didn’t have to happen,” he said. “But definitely when stuff’s not going right or you want something to be said, you have to. That’s not the first time guys on this team openly went at each other. It just so happened somebody happened to be recording, so it is what it is. I don’t want to speak about it no more. We moved past it that day after that timeout, and we’re moving forward.”