It started when Markieff Morris and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope got into a face-to-face jawing match midway through the second quarter of last night’s Suns-Pistons game. It ended when Caldwell-Pope missed what would have been a game-winning three-pointer with a second left on the clock and Morris claimed afterwards he wasn’t worried about Caldwell-Pope’s open look because “he doesn’t have any heart.”
Here’s where things between Caldwell-Pope and Markieff Morris took a turn: KCP drove on ‘Kieff halfway through the second quarter and was whistled for a charging call when Morris went down. Kentavious appears to have said something to Morris, and Markieff took offense. Some jawing took place and then things calmed down while both players were whistled for the technical.
Fast forward to the final seconds of the game, and Caldwell-Pope had a chance to win after Brandon Jennings‘ attempt to tie bounced back to him at the three-point arc:
The shot fell short, and the Suns won 88-86. But Morris wasn’t even stressing KCP’s possible game-winner. By way of the Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News, comes Markieff’s reasoning:
Markieff Morris: "KCP got it and you know he doesn't have any heart so we knew he was going to miss it."
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) November 20, 2014
Well then, we agree with Goodwill’s assessment, by way of Jalen Rose‘s oft-quoted adage about the NBA tough guys:
A lot easier to say afterwards, either way. Remember y'all, this is the "hold me back" league @JalenRose
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) November 20, 2014
Yup…
The two teams do battle again on December 12, and it’ll be interesting to see if Morris’ post-game salvo has any affect on Kentavious.
Does any of this matter, or was it just gamesmanship?
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