BOSTON — There was a big part of Marcus Morris who wanted to make his Celtics regular-season debut Wednesday night against the Sacramento Kings at TD Garden.

There is a bigger part of him who does not want to wait until Sunday in Orlando to play his first game against the Magic after sitting out the first two-plus weeks of the season with knee pain.

In the middle of the two lackluster matchups is one that figures to be a marquee clash against Carmelo Anthony, Paul George, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“Personally, I’m looking at Friday playing against OKC,” Morris said before sitting out Wednesday’s game. “I want to come back for the tough game when we play against some guys. It’s a great game. I know if I miss that game and come back [Sunday] — no disrespect to Orlando — but if I miss [OKC] people will be like: ‘You wanted to sit out that one.’

“I can’t do that. I have to come back when it’s hot.”

Celtics coach Brad Stevens confirmed Morris is on track to do that after he scrimmaged hard with the Maine Red Claws on Monday, had no setbacks on Tuesday, and then went through a strenuous workout on Wednesday.

“It’s trending well,” said Stevens. “I think we’ll see him sooner rather than later.”

When Morris does make his debut in green, he said it will not take him long to look like he has been on the floor with the team all season.

“I, honestly, think I will come back and fit right in perfectly — it’s like riding a bike,” Morris said. “It’s not hard playing with good veterans, great veterans. I think it will be really easy.”

“Leadership qualities,” he added of what he expects to contribute, “a lot of toughness. I’ll be scoring the ball. I know I will able to pass better than a lot of you [in the media] think I can, probably. It’s an open offense. There are mismatches all over the floor. I will probably be one of the guys who is the biggest mismatch.”

Stevens said the starting lineup will continue to be matchup-based when Morris is available as he likely goes with Morris at forward and Al Horford at center on many nights, then Horford at power forward and Aron Baynes at center against bigger, more physical lineups.

The coach said Morris will provide a veteran shot-maker for a team that has leaned heavily on its youth following the potentially season-ending injury to Gordon Hayward on opening night.

“He’s a guy who can guard a bunch of positions and shoot the ball,” Stevens said. “He can post in a matchup situation and he can play with the ball a little bit in [isolation] situations. The biggest thing that stands out to me is — and I think we saw this a little bit the other night [against San Antonio], really the last couple of nights — is just that having another guy who is a proven scorer on the floor is going to be really important for us.”

Morris said he has been going “100 percent” in workouts and has not been “babying” his knee at all. He said his conditioning was better than he thought it would be during the Red Claws scrimmage.

“I can jump pretty well,” he said. “The things I wasn’t able to do three weeks ago, I can do easily now.”

Hayward update

Hayward will meet with the media Thursday morning at the practice facility in Waltham for the first time since his horrific leg injury suffered just 315 seconds into the season opener against Cleveland on Oct. 17.

Stevens said Hayward has been at the practice facility a couple of times in the past week after undergoing surgery to stabilize the ligaments around his dislocated ankle and repair his fractured tibia.

Hayward is out of the hard cast on his leg and in a boot.

“It’s going to be a while before he’s allowed to put any weight on it,” Stevens said, “before he can be weight-bearing on that foot. He’s getting treatment. He’s getting it worked on. He’s doing what he can do with rehab and exercise right now. From everything I know, it’s not a whole lot.

“He’s in his chair shooting every day and he seems to be in really good spirits. That’s the most important thing.”