BOSTON — White wires ran up from the wrap around Markieff Morris’ sprained left ankle Monday around lunchtime. He lounged in a courtside seat in Boston’s TD Garden while a member of the Washington Wizards’ medical staff cranked up a small stimulation machine. Morris has sprained his ankles numerous times before, but never like this. Not this severely. Not this much pain. Not in this circumstance.
This is the first time he has been to the playoffs. It’s what he hoped for after a trade rescued him from dysfunctional Phoenix and added him to the mix with John Wall and Bradley Beal. Now, he has an ankle injury — he rated the pain a five out of 10 — to deal with. There are various opinions about what’s next.
Wizards coach Scott Brooks was non-committal about Morris’ availability for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the top-seeded Boston Celtics. Boston won Game 1, 123-111, Sunday. Game 2 is late Tuesday, an 8 p.m. tipoff, giving Morris more time for treatment, which began immediately when he went to the locker room in the second quarter Sunday. Within minutes of landing on Al Horford’s foot, trainers began to fight the swelling in Morris’ ankle.
“He’s had treatments all day yesterday and last night,” Brooks said. “Same thing this morning. Just see how he feels game to game. I don’t want to make any call on anything right now. I just know that he’s going to get treatments all day today, then I am sure he is going to do the same thing [Tuesday].”
Morris is not a doctor. However, that has not kept him from offering a stern prediction about his availability for Tuesday after an X-ray showed nothing broken.
“I’m playing [Tuesday], that’s final,” Morris said. “There’s nothing doctors can say to me for me not to be able to play.”
Before making his declaration, which was similar to his postgame statements Monday night, Morris did concede that he will have to pass a team protocol in order to be on the floor. He just believes that will happen.
“I’m feeling better,” Morris said. “The swelling went down a whole lot.”
Morris also said that Horford came to him and said “my fault” after he rose from the floor following the injury. Morris has watched the replay a couple times, he said, but isn’t all that interested because of it’s rather gruesome display of his contorted ankle. He does plan to ask Horford if he meant to undercut him.
Without Morris, the Wizards’ chances to win the series are severely reduced. Though Boston prefers to play with small lineups, it rapidly realized Sunday that Morris is versatile enough to counter those even when he plays alongside center Marcin Gortat. Morris can also play “center” when Boston is using Horford as its lone big man. Without Morris, Gortat is responsible for helping cover dribble-drives and rebounding. When he leaves the paint to approach the ball, it’s then up to the weakside defense to rotate down. This, in part led to Otto Porter’s 11 rebounds in Game 1. But, outside of Porter, Kelly Oubre and Bojan Bogdanovic, who played more because of Morris’ injury, combined for four rebounds in 45 minutes on the court.
It’s not just Morris the Wizards have to worry about. The beef in their frontcourt has been thinning for weeks. First, backup center Ian Mahinmi strained his left game in the 81st game of the regular season. He is yet to practice, let alone play, since. Backup power forward Jason Smith also has a calf injury that has nagged him since he left Game 5 against the Atlanta Hawks on April 26.
Mahinmi is “improving day-by-day,” Brooks said. He also said Mahinmi is not ready to play yet, despite a slight increase in what he can do when working individually.
“I know we’re down 1-0, potentially with ’Kieff out,” Brooks said. “We can’t throw guys out there that are not ready to play. We’d never do that. So, we just have to wait and see. We know [Mahinmi] is improving. I’d love to have him back, but we’re not going to put him back unless he is absolutely 100 percent ready.”
Smith played less than 10 minutes in the series opener. He seemed a logical counter to 7-foot Kelly Olynyk, who entered the game in the first quarter when Boston was reeling and reset its course. Instead, Brooks chose Oubre and Bogdanovic for most of the Olynyk’s surge in the post.
Monday, Brooks said possibly using Smith to face Olynyk is “something that we will definitely play close attention to.” Brooks intimated that Smith not playing a lot in Game 1 was a matchup-based decision. Smith sounds like his calf problem may be part of the reason he was not playing much.
“It’s still there,” Smith said. “But, I feel good out there. Training staff is doing a good job of keeping me out there, for sure. Yeah, I feel good.”
So, the tally during a rare break in the playoffs showed Brooks unsure about Morris, Morris sure about Morris, Smith sort of sure about himself and Mahinmi still out. The Wizards also trail in the series, 1-0. They are hoping for good news, not no news, Tuesday.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.