The Los Angeles Lakers played the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night missing six of their top rotation players. This led players like Markieff Morris to land in the starting lineup, alongside Gabe Vincent, Dalton Knecht, Jordan Goodwin and Jaxson Hayes. Morris played 28 minutes in what wound up being a 29-point loss, but was able to make things happen for L.A.
He finished with nine points, four rebounds and two assists on 3-for-11 shooting. The more impressive figure, though, was that he was a plus-seven in a blowout loss. The Lakers lost his 20 minutes off the floor by 36 points. Morris is unlikely to see any real time for the Lakers in the postseason, but Thursday night showed that he could be a positive contributor.
That’s what he believes he showed the Lakers in his minutes, as he talked about after the loss.
“Shit, I’m just ready any time,” Morris said. “I think this is my third game in like 12 days or something like that. I didn’t find out I was starting until later tonight.
“A lot of times people just automatically think you can’t play just because you’re not playing, but for me, the game is a lot easier because it’s a lot younger and a lot of the younger guys don’t know how to play. So it’s easier to plug an older guy in to be able to just find his spots and talk my way through the game.”
Morris did not have many takeaways from the loss, instead focusing on what the Lakers need to do whenever they’re shorthanded like that.
“We just gotta play hard,” he said. “Not really too much (to take away) when you’re down four starters, so these type of games you just gotta play as hard as you can and win, lose or draw, just compete.”
That message deepened when talking about the Lakers surviving a stretch of six games in eight nights, going 3-3 in those games.
“We just continue to fight,” Morris said. “That’s rough for anybody. Obviously we didn’t have Bron for the games, so it’s good that he got to rest up and get healthy. We had some other guys sit out too so just getting those guys back, and I’m just glad we’re through it.”
The Lakers are hopefully not going to have any more games where they are missing six rotation players. But if they do, Morris is ready for the task of helping L.A. compete to the best of their ability.
Lakers’ Bronny James took advantage of opportunity
Another player who took advantage of the opportunity presented to him on Thursday night was Bronny James. The Lakers gave their 2024 second-round draft pick 30 minutes, and he responded by scoring 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting to go along with five assists and three rebounds.
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!