Washington Wizards power forward Markieff Morris (hernia) may be ready to serve his one-game suspension on Wednesday, which would allow him to make his season debut against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday.
Morris got in some 5-on-5 work on Tuesday, and it would be a surprise if he doesn't return to action this weekend at some point. Once he is cleared of his injury, he'll have to serve a one-game suspension for leaving the bench during an altercation with the Golden State Warriors last weekend.
“He’s been progressing to get on five-on-five level and today he did. He participated in the entire practice,” Coach Scott Brooks said following the Tuesday afternoon session. “We’ll see how he feels tonight and [Wednesday] morning and decide if we’re going to activate him for tomorrow night’s game.”
An independent doctor from the NBA must clear Morris before returning to the active roster. If Morris is ruled to be physically able to play, then he will serve his one-game suspension Wednesday night against the Phoenix Suns as punishment for leaving the bench during the Bradley Beal-Draymond Green scuffle Friday night in Oakland.
Unfazed by the challenge from the Cavaliers, Morris is instead focusing on his own conditioning. After his first full-on practice, Morris admitted that while he felt no pain, his legs seemed heavy.
“It’s one of the toughest things is to stay in as close to game shape as possible but he was able to do that with our staff,” Brooks said. “Give him and the staff credit. They did whatever it took for him for him to be in pretty good shape.”
The Wizards have upcoming games against Phoenix (Wednesday), Cleveland (Friday) and Toronto (Sunday).
Morris, 28, averaged a career-high 14.0 points and 6.5 rebounds last season for Washington, which lost to Boston in the second round of the playoffs.
