You may have noticed that the Washington Wizards looked a little irascible in their Game 2 loss on Tuesday evening. It looks as if Markieff Morris’ influence has just about taken hold.

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Just about. The Wizards contributed a giant effort that fell just short in Boston in Game 1, watching as a series of either/or plays went the Celtics’ way in the team’s 129-119 win. The Wizards’ big forward, however, hardly thinks his team’s tone and play matched the pitch needed to overthrow the home favorite, on a night few would soon forget.

Via AJ Neuharth-Keusch at USA Today, here’s Markieff getting right to the point:

“We’re not playing tough enough.

[…]

“We had the advantage late in the game and all we had to do was just play tough. We didn’t have to make shots. We didn’t have to get stops. All we had to do was play tough. We let them get offensive rebounds late in the game. Guys (were) just walking to the basket and we’re just worried about our own personal (expletive). It’s about the team.”

[…]

“We emphasized (getting 50-50 balls) when we watched film that that’s what they do when they go (with a smaller lineup),” Morris said. “They play tough. They’ve got guys that are going in head first. That’s what we’ve got to do. It’s the playoffs. Every possession counts.”

[…]

“At the end of the day it’s about winning and we didn’t care too much about that tonight. We let them back in the game. We’ve got to regroup and get the next one.”

That’s a noble way to end things, but if the Wizards truly were focused on the smaller lineups (mostly featuring the pugnacious Marcus Smart, slithery Avery Bradley and bounding Jae Crowder tossing their livelihood into the scrum in search of an offensive rebound) in the days heading into Game 1, what’s another round of tape-watching and head-bashing going to do?

The team took its time in countering with a small lineup of its own down the stretch, even after Morris sat for about 40 minutes of real time after picking up his fourth foul early in the third quarter, only dumping beleaguered big man Marcin Gortat in an unproductive overtime frame.

View photos This has not been a good look for Washington. (Getty Images) More

Prior to that Markieff was paired in with Marcin Gortat and Otto Porter Jr. in an orthodox lineup for Washington, as the team traded runs with the Celtics down the stretch of the fourth with Gortat chasing both Thomas and C’s center Al Horford throughout. To limited success.

The Celtics pulled in 28 percent of their offensive rebound chances, but that mark ranks below Washington, which grabbed 13 second-chance caroms in the loss. It was inaction in the wrong times that felled the Wizards, not a one-sided blast.

Wizards point guard John Wall may have been confused postgame when he noted a phantom corner 3-pointer off of a Horford offensive board that cut the lead to two (Horford did corral an offensive rebound over Gortat with 2:46 left in the fourth, but only passed to a Crowder miss with the C’s up five) or the “two offensive rebounds in the last two minutes” that Washington gave up (they gave up two in the last three minutes, both resulting in Boston misses). But he certainly wasn’t confused with his estimation as to why Isaiah Thomas had the legs needed to spring free for his legendary Game 2 performance:

For the Poindexters, from Ben Rohrbach’s Game 2 gamer spun from Boston on Tuesday evening:

“He’s up there,” Wall said of Thomas in the current point guard pantheon, before throwing just a bit of shade on his sparring partner. “They’re a great defensive team. He has the opportunity where he can rest defensively. He doesn’t have to guard. They have other guys who can guard for him, and he saves a lot of energy for the offensive end, and he goes out and does everything they need him to do.”

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