Boston Celtics: Marcus Morris providing an offensive boost

Over the past week or so, Marcus Morris has provided much-needed offense for the Boston Celtics in the absence of some key players.

Marcus Morris has been a major factor in some of the Boston Celtics‘ wins over the last four games. He’s come into the starting lineup and has sparked things up offensively. Boston’s first game without Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown and Al Horford was on March 14, against the Washington Wizards.

Since that game, the Celtics are 2-2, which includes an impressive overtime defeat. No one expected Boston to look that good against a really good Wizards team. Despite losing, they showed everyone why they were the true winners and that they shouldn’t be taken lightly, even with a depleted roster.

Furthermore, the Celtics won games against the Orlando Magic and Oklahoma City Thunder. They found themselves losing against the New Orleans Pelicans, but it’s not an easy feat when you’re playing against one of the NBA’s best in Anthony Davis.

It’s not really hard to beat a struggling Magic team, but what was impressive was beating that Oklahoma City team. They Thunder have had their ups and downs, but when you have Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony and Steven Adams, you’re not going to win any game easily against them.

Thanks to Morris, Boston was able to come out of there with a win. He hit the game-winning 3 that sent the Thunder packing and Boston fans cheering.

The NBA did deem that Morris traveled on the play and should have been called for a five-second violation on the inbound play, but what’s done is done and Boston won the game. Besides keeping a clutch demeanor, he has dominated since March 14:

• vs. Wizards: 31 points, 11-22 FG, 4-8 3P
• vs. Magic: 9 points, 4-15 FG, 1-5 3P
• vs. Pelicans: 17 points, 5-14 FG, 2-4 3P
• vs. Thunder: 21 points, 8-13 FG, 3-6 3P
• Average: 19.5 PPG, 43.8 FG%, 43.5 3P%

You never know what kind of Morris you’re going to get on a nightly basis. He’s either firing with complete confidence or missing the majority of his shots.

That was evident in some of the games he’s played in recently. One night he shot 61.5 percent from the field against the Thunder. Then you look at the game against the Magic and he shot 26.7 percent on 14 attempts.

There’s no doubt that these past four games, whether you’re getting a hot or cold shooting night from him, Morris is still a necessary asset on the offensive end. We know Boston isn’t a good offensive team, so to lose arguably your three best offensive weapons and still find ways to win is impressive.

You can play defense all you want, but if you can’t score, you won’t win – it’s as simple as that. Thanks to Morris, Boston has been able to score the ball and he’s helped bring them to a 2-2 record without a lot of key players.

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We should be seeing the return of Horford, Irving and Brown soon — just in time with April right around the corner. If for any reason we don’t see those three players in the coming games, Morris will have to continue to shoot the ball with confidence.