MILWAUKEE -- One day after being fined $15,000 for public criticism of the officiating, Boston Celtics forward Marcus Morris sounded off again about the rash of technical fouls that he has been given in recent weeks, including one in Boston's Game 4 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Morris earned his second technical foul of the postseason after a brief dust-up with Khris Middleton early in the second quarter of Milwaukee's 104-102 triumph Sunday that evened the series at 2. Morris has been whistled for six technical fouls since the final week of the regular season and has repeatedly suggested that he's being unfairly targeted by officials.
"I play hard, man. I don't know no other way to play," Morris said. "It's not like I'm overly talking to the referees or making infractions with the referees. It's a game between men, and we got out there and it gets chippy. We bump a little bit. It's not over the top.
"But like every game, I have to get a technical foul, you know what I mean? I'm not engaging into anything, I'm not going at the referees, I'm not talking crazy to him. For me, man, it's just getting old, man. Fining me, teching me, it's getting old. It's just laughable at this point."
Morris has suggested that referees have been a little quick to assess techs on him ever since he got ejected from a win over the Raptors in late March. After his ejection, he patted a referee on the backside while leaving the court and previously wondered if the referees are holding that incident against him.
"I love to play this game, and it's just, game in and game out, it's the same thing, man," Morris said. "I'm not doing a lot of chit chat, or I'm being physical. I'm watching these other games and they're getting warnings. If it's me, it's a technical foul. I just got fined. I'm not worried about that, it's just when you come to work every day and you put your heart and soul into something, It's just a quick whistle, and that's how it goes."
Morris finished with 13 points over 26 minutes during Sunday's loss but missed a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer that could have forced overtime.
"We were looking for a pindown over the top and then a pindown for Terry Rozier. I saw that they switched it with a longer defender on [Rozier]," Morris said. "I looked up and had to take a shot. I thought it was down. It came out of my hand pretty clean."
Noted teammate Jaylen Brown: "It's a shot that Mook makes 10 out of 10 times. It just didn't go in tonight. So, Game 5. Keep moving forward."
Morris said the injury-depleted Celtics have to take advantage of having home court in the series.
"[The Bucks] did what they were supposed to do," Morris said. "We gave them a rumble. They got this win, and now we go back to Boston, where we play really well at, and take care of business."