Morris carried heavy load in Game 1 win

BOSTON — Marcus Morris Sr. ended his day by carrying his 9-month-old son, Marcus Jr., into his postgame press conference at the Garden on Sunday.

He began the day by carrying the Celtics in the first quarter when his teammates couldn’t seem to do anything right.

Morris scored 12 points in the first quarter and finished with 20 to tie Kyrie Irving for game-high honors as the Celtics rallied to beat Indiana, 84-74, in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first- [...]

BOSTON — Marcus Morris Sr. ended his day by carrying his 9-month-old son, Marcus Jr., into his postgame press conference at the Garden on Sunday.

He began the day by carrying the Celtics in the first quarter when his teammates couldn’t seem to do anything right.

Morris scored 12 points in the first quarter and finished with 20 to tie Kyrie Irving for game-high honors as the Celtics rallied to beat Indiana, 84-74, in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series. Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be Wednesday night at the Garden.

The Celtics fell behind 14-6 early, but Morris came off the bench to score 12 of their last 14 points in the first quarter to help them pull even, 20-20. In the opening quarter, the 6-foot-9 forward made three of his four field-goal attempts, including two of his three 3-point tries, and four of his five free throw attempts. His teammates shot 4 of 14, missed all six of their 3-point tries and didn’t attempt a foul shot.

“He just brought a real intense, veteran mindset,” Irving said, “just being able to go out there and impact the game. It’s not so much about scoring as much as just the attitude coming in and just throwing himself into the game. I appreciated that. I think we all did.”

“He’s a very good 3-point shooter,” Indiana forward Thaddeus Young said, “but he has the ability to put the ball on the floor and drive left and get his fade-away jumper off and post up smaller guys. Today he did a really good job of just being spaced and being ready to knock down shots, but we have to make our adjustments and be ready to take him out of there.”

The Celtics shot only 32.5 percent while entering halftime trailing, 45-38, but Morris hit a 3-pointer to cap a 22-3 spurt to open the third quarter and give the Celtics a 60-48 lead. The Pacers didn’t score a field goal in the third quarter until Al Horford was called for goaltending on Cory Joseph’s drive with 3:28 remaining. The Pacers finished 2 of 19 from the field while the Celtics outscored them, 26-8, in the third quarter. The Celtics led by as many as 22 in the fourth.

Morris ended up shooting 5 of 12, including 3 of 8 from threeland, and converted a career-playoff-high 7 three throws in 9 attempts. He scored 20 points for the fifth time in the playoffs and the third time as a Celtic. He also had 7 rebounds and was a plus-15, third-best on the team to Horford’s plus-20 and Irving’s plus-19.

"I just tried to enter the game and stay aggressive,” Morris said. “I got a couple bigs guarding me so I tried to space the floor and read their closeouts.”

“Marcus was great,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “You saw that coming in the last two days of practice. He was terrific on Thursday in practice when we went live. I think he probably benefited as much as anybody from being out for a couple of the last regular-season games.”

Morris felt rejuvenated after resting for two of the last four games.

“Anytime you get days off you’re grateful,” Morris said.

Morris reached 20 points for the first time this season since he contributed 21 against Sacramento on March 14 and for only the second time since he had 22 against Indiana on Jan. 9. He also scored 23 at Indiana on Nov. 3, but his last two regular-season games against the Pacers didn’t go so well. He scored a total of 18 points and shot just 7 of 21, including 2 of 10 from threeland.

“It could be anybody’s night in the playoffs,” Irving said. “The ultimate goal is just get a W at the end of the game. It doesn’t matter how you do it. So I think the luxury of having him as well as other veterans with everyone filling in around that, I felt pretty confident.”

Morris began the season coming off the bench, moved into the starting lineup on Nov. 23 and stayed there until coming off the bench in five of his last six regular-season games.

“At the end of the day, I’m a hooper,” he said. “So if I start or come off (the bench), it’s just a small adjustment.”

His production fell way off after a strong start to his season, but he was effective on Sunday.

“I thought he did a really good job and we need him to,” Stevens said. “I thought he played big and strong and rebound the ball for the ball for us on the defensive end and he’s a hard guy to guard with bigs because he spreads the floor for you.”