Marcus Morris claimed he could stop LeBron James. Then he backed it up

Marcus Morris put his money where his mouth is, and after proclaiming himself as the second-best LeBron James stopper in the league, he delivered in Game 1 against the Cavaliers on Sunday.

There were 24 instances in which Morris found himself defending the de facto best basketball player on the planet. In those instances, James scored just five points on 2-of-6 shooting to go with two assists and one turnover.

Asked after Game 1 why he looked forward to defending LeBron in this matchup, Morris responded: “Because I’m a competitor. You know, he’s the best player and I’m gonna be able to tell my kids about this one day.”

The James-Morris matchup became news on Saturday after Morris, never short on confidence, offered up this quote about Boston’s Eastern Conference Finals series against the Cleveland:

“Personally, I think I’m probably the best guy defending him in the league, outside of Kawhi,” Morris said.

It’s great to have confidence, but you know the internet is going to drag a quote like this. No one can guard LeBron James, the best player in the world and maybe the best player ever. He’s playing what might be his best basketball ever, and your only hope is to slow him down.

Several people found instances of James scoring over Morris with absolute disregard. Like this:

And this:

And this:

We saw what he did in Game 1 of the ECF and there are some stats actually working in his favor here.

And ...

That shows that Morris has guarded James well in the past. It does not guarantee that Morris will continue to guard James well, or take into context what else might have happened in those games, but it’s interesting.

On the other hand, we should also point out that Morris has not been a good isolation defender in this postseason, even if these stats have a bit of a small sample size.

Just so we’re clear:

Morris’ first quote was perhaps a little too confident given he was talking about James, but he’s not saying that he’s going to shut him down single-handedly. That’s good, because he isn’t! But he sure walked a good walk in Game 1.