Marcus Morris weighs in on Cavs’ Game 1 meltdown: ‘Lack of leadership’

Former NBA forward Marcus Morris knows what he saw in the Cavaliers’ loss to the Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

And he’s not blaming coach Kenny Atkinson.

Instead, Morris pointed to Donovan Mitchell and James Harden, the Cavs stars who were unable to save their team from a total collapse in the fourth quarter. Cleveland held a 22-point lead with less than 8 minutes left in the game.

“Two things I see with Cleveland is they don’t really have good leadership as far as players,” Morris told Yahoo Sports. “If you look at a James Harden team or a Donovan Mitchell team, they’ve always had a guy on the bench who was the vocal leader. 

“When you called a timeout, you could see that guy showing passion and keeping the team together.”

Morris went on to stress that such player leadership can be invaluable during times of trouble. 

“I can’t put that (loss) on coaching,” Morris said. “You have two guys that are gonna be hall-of-famers. At some point, up 22, then it’s down to 15, now it’s down to 10 … them two guys need to settle the team down and get quality shots and make sure they have quality possessions. That’s the biggest thing that’s the biggest thing they were missing.”

Morris doubled down on the idea that the blame lies more with the players than the coaching staff.

“As a player, we always say, ‘Oh, the coach could’ve called better plays,’ but if I got Donovan Mitchell and James Harden with a 20-point lead, I feel good about that, I feel great about that,” he said. “So what I’m saying is it’s our two stars that have to take ownership and say, ‘This was our fault. We can’t allow our team to crumble like that up 20 in the Eastern Conference finals.'”

Morris played for eight teams in 13 NBA seasons. His final year came with the Cavs in 2023-24.

Game 2 between the Cavs and Knicks is set for Thursday night in New York.

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