Marcus Morris warns Kevin Love the Pistons plan to 'rough him up'
Cleveland Cavaliers power forward Kevin Love had a rough season. For the second straight year he failed to make the All-Star team, and his bad defense was viewed by many as the number one weakness holding the Cavs back from a championship.
But after an impressive Game 1 performance in Cleveland's first-round series against the Detroit Pistons, all those Love trade rumors feel like they happened one million years ago. He finished with 28 points and 13 rebounds, made half his threes and was a brute in the low post.
Heading into Game 2, Detroit's Marcus Morris (Love's primary victim in the series opener) says he took exception to Love's play, but the way he wants to stop him is blatantly illegal (via MLive):
Asked how the Pistons would deal with Love as the best-of-seven series continues, Morris replied, "Maybe rough him up a little bit." "He had a good game the first game," Morris said. "We definitely took it a little disrespectful. So I think we're definitely going to push up a little harder on him, maybe foul him a little harder, things like that."...Tobias Harris, who figures to get the primary defensive assignment against Love, although he and Morris switch regularly, also said the Pistons need to be more physical in stopping him. "He's a strong player but a lot of it's just making his catches tough for him, pushing him out and just trying to make him make a tough shot," Harris said. "He got into a rhythm early on, got a lot of open looks, and was able to make a lot of three-balls, especially off of missed rebounds that we weren't able to get. That's something they capitalized on as a team and that's something that we discussed as a team that we have to be better at coming into Game 2."
From the opening tip to the final buzzer, Love was arguably Cleveland's best player, but hacking him and getting into foul trouble may not be the best way to slow him down. When he wasn't exploiting a blatant mismatch against Morris in the post, the Cavs played Love at center for 12 whole minutes in Game 1 -- with LeBron James at power forward -- facing Pistons big man Andre Drummond.
The strategy was a roaring success, and Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy may need to remove his All-Star center from the game whenever Cleveland goes small to spread the floor. It's a diabolical lineup that maximizes Love and LeBron's strengths as a tandem.
Roughing either of them up simply won't do.
