Marcus Morris’ bench production crucial for Boston Celtics

Marcus Morris came through with 15 points in just 17 minutes in the Celtics’ 108-105 win over the Brooklyn Nets on New Year’s Eve.

Power forward Marcus Morris has been of major importance for the Boston Celtics this season when he has been healthy, and his offensive talent was put on full display in the team’s 108-105 defeat of the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday evening at TD Garden.

Morris is averaging 18.1 points per 36 minutes this season but nearly matched this total in not even half the time against Brooklyn. Despite receiving 17 minutes, well below his season average of 23.1 per game, Morris toasted the Nets to the tune of 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range.

While nobody is considering him to be a three-point marksman, Morris has improved his outside shooting percentage from 33.1 percent to 36.1 percent this season. His 10.0 field goal attempts per game is a wild statistic considering he has averaged just 17.3 minutes over his last ten games, but the Celtics knew they were receiving a high volume shooter when they acquired him this past offseason.

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The acquisition certainly paid off on New Year’s Eve. His first two three-pointers put the cherry on top of a brilliant offensive first quarter for the Celtics. On the first make, he caught a pass from Marcus Smart and swished the triple to hand his team a 27-14 lead with 3:46 remaining. With 52 ticks left in the quarter, he received a pass from Terry Rozier, who also impressed with 14 points and seven rebounds of his own, and canned a 23-footer to give Boston a 34-25 lead.

With Boston up 74-68 in the third quarter, Morris began heating up. He created space for himself on a nine-foot step back jumper before stepping into a deep 28-foot three pointer off a pass from Smart, who had four assists, to increase the advantage to 79-68 in just 22 seconds.

The hot streak continued into the fourth quarter. With 10:04 to go, Morris knocked down a three off an Al Horford assist to bump the Boston lead back up to 88-80.

The Celtics are 15-4 when Morris is available, and his overall shooting on niche attempts has been solid. Morris enjoys taking midrange looks from 10-16 feet, sizing up the defender before creating room for a shot attempt off a jab step or a step back dribble to his left. From between 10-16 feet from the hoop, he is shooting 42.4 percent from the field. This mark is consistent with last season’s 43 percent and a considerable step up from the 38.3 percent he shot from this range in 2015-16.

One major area of concern for Morris has been making shots from the 3-10 foot range, such as the nine-foot step back that he made in the third quarter against Brooklyn. After converting on 35.6 percent of his attempts from this area last season and 38.4 percent of his shots from between 3-10 feet in 2014-15, Morris has been successful just 21.1 percent of the time from this range.

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While this drop-off in conversion rate is substantial, it is less alarming considering Morris takes just 10.4 percent of his shots from between 3-10 feet. However, Morris could be even more of a weapon if he is able to weave the 9-10 foot step back jumper into his game and be more efficient finishing with turnaround jumpers in the lane.