The Celtics seemed to take Marcus Morris’ Saturday comments at face value and accept them as truth. But after Monday’s practice, Brad Stevens and Al Horford did try to narrow the focus of the honesty outburst to the last two games, rather than the larger period Morris stated.

Following the loss to the Clippers in which the Celts had squandered a 28-point lead — which came on the heels of blowing an 18-point advantage against the Lakers Thursday — Morris criticized the team for being too individualistic, not having the proper attitude and not having fun. Related Articles Morris outburst just the latest: A timeline of Celtics angst

Marcus Morris calls out Celtics following bad loss to Clippers

Stevens didn’t seem disturbed by Mook’s message.

“You know, one of the things that we say at the very beginning of the year is that we don’t want to be a team quoted of unnamed sources,” said the coach, who will be without Kyrie Irving (strained right knee) against Philadelphia Tuesday (he wasn’t sure about Wednesday here against Detroit). “So if you’re going to say something, you’ve got to put your name next to it. And Marcus’ frustrations were obvious and evident, and you know what, in a lot of ways I thought he said a lot of stuff that you can’t really argue in the last two games. So we need to be a lot better than we were at finishing out games and handling adverse situations in games and go from there. But as long as we can put our name next to it, I’m good.”

As for the lack of joy on this year’s Celtics, Stevens said, “That is a direct result of letting games like that go away and not feeling as together as we need to be. I talk about connectivity all the time. If you’re super connected as a team and you play with great physical effort all the time, then it’s fun as hell. And when you go back and forth, then it’s not as fun. So that’s to me… fun is doing your job well at a high level over and over, and then you kind of catapult off the energy of the results that it brings. The reality is we’ve been pretty good, with the exception of two games where we blew it late.”

According to Morris, there was no blowback from his teammates.

“For the most part, you know, everybody agreed with me,” he said. “Coach, he thought it was the right thing to say… more to the fact of I could have basically kept that in house and talked to my teammates, but you guys caught me at a good time. I was hot. I just spoke what was real. I didn’t take it out of context or point anybody out. I just said as a whole. I just felt like we’ve got to enjoy this process. You know, when we’re up 20 or up 30, it has to seem like we’re up 20 to 30, and I think that stretches out around the league. That’s just basically it.”

Horford agreed with the lack of fun issue, but put it in context.

“It’s not fun when we’re not playing the right way,” he said. “I just think it was a tough one. In the past two games, we’ve dominated teams at times; we just didn’t come up with the results we wanted.

“I just think we get into tough situations and we can steer away from the way that we want to play. That happens. Even when you’re winning, you have moments like that. I just think he was probably a little frustrated with how the game went. We all were.

“I think that sometimes, you just need a wakeup call. As good as we’ve been playing, we’ve got to put things into perspective. I felt like we’ve been playing good basketball and the past two games have not been what we want to be. That’ll be the challenge.”

Stevens said oSaturday, even before Morris had his say, that he’d have to look at what he could do from the bench to get the Celtics on the right path. In his latest chat, he seemed to indicate that, while no rotational changes are anticipated (other than dealing with Irving’s absence), there could be a shorter leash with players who do not perform as requested.

“I think I just have to do a way better job of holding us to the standard with which we need to play,” he said. “It’s not about who’s playing. It’s not about who’s in the game — who starts the game, who comes in the game. It’s just we have to play to a better standard for the full four quarters. And that’s on coaching.”

When the subject turned to defensive communication, Stevens said, “I mean, when you lose leads like we lost, you could go all the way from shot selection to defensive communication to what you ate pregame to whatever. Like, those are frustrating losses.

“I was asked this morning at a sponsor event, like, when do you let go of those losses? When I die they’ll be gone. Those piss you off. And if it doesn’t, you’re not in a good place. That’s why I don’t care what Marcus said. It’s not fun when you lose those games. We need to play better on everything. It’s not just the defensive end of the floor, but you’ve got to be tied together and you’ve got to play with great effort all the way through the game to make that happen.”

Regarding his role in building — or repairing — team chemistry, he said, “We have to all do our part, but I think that, again, I always go back to this: If we’re playing to a great standard and we’re supporting each other and when guys are falling down we’re flying to get them up and we’re cheering from the bench and when somebody makes a mistake we pat them on the back, then we’re operating at a standard this town deserves — with effort and toughness. So, to me, I don’t lose sleep at night over the results. I don’t lose sleep at night over us not saying it’s fun. That’s a matter of not doing things the way we need to do them. That’s what I’m losing sleep over. And again, to me, it’s about what this town deserves, and they deserve a team that plays with great effort and teamness.”

Before heading for the plane to Philadelphia, Morris did a good job of explaining what’s at stake.

“To me, it was just speaking real,” he said. “I’m not really about to BS stuff. I want to win a championship. I understand what it takes to get there basically every day. And I think that’s why my teammates, they definitely accepted it, because they see that I’m a guy that comes in here and I put my hard hat on and come to work. I’m passionate about it, and I don’t know no other way.

“To be in this position, to have a chance to compete for something like that, you know, it means a lot to me, because you don’t get this opportunity at all in this league. Eight years I’ve been here. It’s not a crazy amount, but eight years I’ve been in the league, I never even thought I could win a championship with the teams I was on. And this team I feel a lot different about, and I just want to push us to that position.”