Marcus Morris Says He's the Best Player at Defending LeBron James Besides Kawhi Leonard

Marcus Morris has a lot of confidence that the Celtics can defend LeBron James better than most.

Celtics forward Marcus Morris spoke to reporters with a lot of confidence Saturday when discussing matching up with LeBron James on defense.

When talking about the experience he gained from guarding James in the 2016 postseason, Morris made a claim that many think might not have been the best thing to say.

"I'm a little older, a little more experienced," Morris said according to Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com. "Personally, I think I'm probably the best guy in the league defending him outside of Kawhi [Leonard]."

With a matchup against the Cavaliers scheduled for Sunday at 3:30 p.m. EST, plenty of people looked at this statement, combined with a deleted tweet from the Celtics about history showing Morris could slow down James, as nothing more than fuel for the four-time MVP.

Looks like the Celtics official account deleted its tweet suggesting Marcus Morris could slow down LeBron pic.twitter.com/jcLpKa1bko

— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) May 12, 2018

Boston Celtics: "history suggests that Marcus Morris could help us slow [LeBron] down"

LeBron: pic.twitter.com/H9qD7FOdcL

— Bruh Report (@BruhReport) May 12, 2018

Marcus Morris has to be careful. pic.twitter.com/G80MQK4nMg

— Thomas Duffy (@TJDhoops) May 12, 2018

Marcus Morris: "I'm the LeBron Stopper now"
LeBron: pic.twitter.com/S3xMylSRdI

— Mike Zavagno (@MZavagno11) May 12, 2018

Based on this defense, LeBron probably doesn't even know who Marcus Morris is pic.twitter.com/rXfFyL4MO1

— Mike Zavagno (@MZavagno11) May 12, 2018

A quick look at how bothered LeBron is by Marcus Morris pic.twitter.com/HS7UheY88r

— Erik García Gundersen (he/him/his) (@Erik_Gundersen) May 11, 2018

pic.twitter.com/sYwkGfHYHC

— Josh Eberley 🇨🇦 (@JoshEberley) May 12, 2018

Morris did clarify his statement, explaining it will take a team effort just to slow down James and adding, "He's the best player in this game. My thing is just cut down on easy buckets," according to Forsberg.

Morris also mentioned he felt the Celtics would be more physical with James than the Raptors were in the previous series, and stressed the idea of not letting James look more "confident" than he already is by preventing "easy" shots.

Since returning to Cleveland in 2014, James swept the Celtics in the first round in 2015, then swept Morris' Pistons in the first round in 2016 and then defeated Boston in five games in the conference finals last year.