Yahoo Lifestyle Clippers' Marcus Morris ejected in first quarter of Game 6 win for flagrant foul on Luka Doncic
The Los Angeles Clippers lost Marcus Morris early in Game 6 of their Western Conference playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday afternoon.
Thankfully for the Clippers, it didn’t cost them the win.
The Clippers held on without Morris to beat the Mavericks 111-97, officially ending their series 4-2 and sending them into the next round.
Marcus Morris ejected for foul on Doncic
Morris got ejected in the first quarter for a flagrant foul on Mavs star Luka Doncic. As Doncic drove to the lane, Morris smacked Doncic and clearly wasn’t going for the ball.
Marcus Morris with the hard foul on Luka Doncic pic.twitter.com/TIqrWVW9Ql
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) August 30, 2020
"It was a terrible play. What can I say?" Doncic said, via ESPN. “It's two games in a row he did something like that. I really hoped the first game it wasn't on purpose, but looking back on the foul this game, you know what I think. I don't want to deal with that kind of players. Just move on."
The foul wasn’t the first time Morris had a run-in with Doncic in the series. Morris stepped on Doncic’s left ankle in Game 5. That’s the same ankle that Doncic sprained earlier in the series, though Morris denied that he had stepped on Doncic’s injured ankle on purpose.
Doncic said after Game 5 — a game the Clippers won to take a 3-2 series lead — that he hoped Morris’ act wasn’t intentional. Doncic tied the series at 2-2 in Game 4 with an epic buzzer-beater.
"I don't want to talk to him. He's just saying a lot of bad stuff to me... I just hope it wasn't intentional. If that was intentional.. that's really bad."
Luka Doncic addresses Marcus Morris stepping on his injured ankle in game 5. @dallasmavs | #WholeNewGame pic.twitter.com/CqhqxWEAfM— FOX Sports Southwest (@FOXSportsSW) August 26, 2020
Doncic has been single-handedly keeping the Mavericks in contention with the Clippers as Kristaps Porzingis has been sidelined with a knee injury. He’s averaged nearly 30 points per game through the first five games along with 10 rebounds and almost nine assists per game.
Morris, meanwhile, has been a reliable member of the Clippers’ starting lineup. He entered Sunday’s game averaging over 13 points per game and had nine points in 11 minutes before his ejection.
Morris said after the game that he didn’t think his ejection should warrant a suspension for their next game, but understood why the officials made the call that they did on Sunday.
"They had to make that call," Morris said, via ESPN. "I think, honestly, we had a lot of back-and-forth this series. It was a hard-fought series. I just don't want people to mistake playing basketball, playing hard with trying to hurt somebody. I think Tim Hardaway had an extremely hard foul with [Paul George] last game, and it wasn't taken in [the same context]."
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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