Luka addresses Morris' flagrant: 'Don't want to deal with that kind of player'
Luka Doncic wasn't shy about airing his frustrations with Los Angeles Clippers forward Marcus Morris after the Dallas Mavericks were eliminated in Game 6 on Sunday.
Morris was ejected late in the first quarter after picking up a flagrant-2 foul for a hard swipe at Doncic's head under the Clippers' basket. The Mavericks star rebuked Morris' playing style postgame and suggested the strike was deliberate.
"Terrible foul, you know? It's two games in a row he did something like that," Doncic said, courtesy of Ben Golliver of The Washington Post. "I really had hoped the first game it wasn't on purpose, but looking back at the foul in this game, you know what I think. It just - I don't want to deal with that kind of player."
Mavericks teammate Boban Marjanovic had to restrain Doncic from going after Morris following the contact. The referees issued the Clippers big man a flagrant 2 after reviewing the play.
There was already bad blood between the two players after Morris stepped on Doncic's recently sprained ankle in Game 5, though he denied it was intentional.
Morris again rejected the notion he was trying to hurt Doncic in Game 6.
"I thought it was a hard foul, ended up getting him above the shoulder," he said, courtesy of Fox Sports West. "You know, they had to make that call. I think it's honestly just, you know we had a lot of back-and-forth this series. It was a hard-fought series.
"I don't want people to mistake playing basketball and playing hard with trying to hurt somebody."
Neither Morris' reputation nor his previous incident with Doncic factored into the decision to hand the Clippers forward a flagrant 2, Scott Foster, the officials' crew chief for Game 6, told ESPN's Tim MacMahon postgame.
Clippers head coach Doc Rivers defended Morris after the first quarter, arguing he was ejected "because he's Marcus." Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle said postgame he believed the officials made the correct call.
"The play speaks for itself. ... As soon as this play happened in real time, I knew he was getting ejected," Carlisle said, according to Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News.
The Clippers will face the winner of the series between the Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets in the second round.