"Would your brother agree?" - Dwight Howard takes jab at Marcus Morris' take on Lakers' 2020 Bubble championship
Dwight Howard was part of the LA Lakers’ crew that competed and eventually won the 2020 NBA championship in the “Bubble Tournament” in Florida. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBA salvaged the league by holding the playoffs inside the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. The season was nearly scrapped before everyone came together to let the games go on.
Some, including a handful of players, coaches and analysts, want to put an asterisk on the Lakers’ last championship. They argued that it had to be noted that the Larry O’Brien Trophy was won under never-before-experienced conditions.
Marcus Morris, who played for the LA Clippers during that season, guaranteed a different outcome had the playoffs not been in the confines of the said resort. He said on the “Run It Back” podcast that the Clippers would have won as “hands down, we were the best team.”
Dwight Howard promptly reacted to that claim:
“Would your brother agree?”
Interestingly, Morris’ twin brother, Markieff Morris was Howard’s teammate with the Lakers. There's just no doubt that the brother in question would agree with that bold assertion that had been shared by former Clippers players. Lou Williams, who was on the podcast, had the same assertion a few years ago.
Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell and Terance Mann shared the same opinion on separate occasions. Harrell even said:
“On God, I stand on that. Ain’t nobody beating us in seven (games).”
Dwight Howard had every right to question Marcus Morris' claim about the LA Clippers being the best team.
Harrell argued that the time off spent after the games were postponed took their rhythm away. The Clippers had a 44-20 record following their 131-107 win over the Golden State Warriors on March 10, 2020. Meanwhile, the Lakers had a 49-14 win-loss card after losing 104-102 to the Brooklyn Nets on the same date.
The “Battle of Los Angeles,” which wasn’t in Hollywood, opened the “Bubble Tournament” with Howard and Co. beating Morris and his teammates 103-101. Some found it confusing why some former Clippers players made that claim.
Dwight Howard and the Lakers flourished in the ‘Bubble Tournament’ while Marcus Morris and the Clippers wilted
With LeBron James and Anthony Davis leading the way, the LA Lakers went 16-5 to win the 2020 championship. Dwight Howard, Alex Caruso, Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were also key members of that group that survived the weird playoff conditions.
The LA Clippers couldn’t go toe-to-toe with their Tinseltown rivals. Marcus Morris’ team had a 3-1 lead against the Denver Nuggets in the semifinals. Had they gone on to win just one more game, the first Lakers-Clippers playoffs duel would have happened.
Instead, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard couldn’t deliver as the Doc Rivers-coached team faded in seven games.
Morris and some of his former teammates could claim that they should have won the title in 2020, but the record shows a different story. Dwight Howard and the Lakers lifted won a record-tying 17th Larry O’Brien Trophy that year.