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Markieff Morris will serve his one-game suspension for leaving the bench during Friday’s altercation with the Warriors on Wednesday night against the Suns, according to Ben Standig.
By rule, injured players have to be cleared by a team physician, as well as a league-appointed independent physician before serving a suspension. This prevents teams from having a player serve a suspension during a time when they’re already incapable of playing basketball. The good news is this means Markieff Morris should be available for Friday’s home game against the Cavaliers, barring some sort of a setback.
Scott Brooks said on Tuesday he expects Morris will play 12-16 minutes in his first game back. He also made it clear there is no controversy over who will be the starting power forward once he’s back to a normal workload, despite the success the team has had with Kelly Oubre in the starting lineup.
We’ll see how exactly Brooks plans on doling out minutes with Morris back, but this is a great development for Washington however it plays out. After all the fear and dread about how Washington would struggle without Morris, it turns out they managed just fine for the most part. The team will either go 4-3 or 5-2 without Morris, and after this weekend’s games against Cleveland and Toronto, they get a soft slate to help get Morris back up to full speed as they host the Mavericks, Lakers, Hawks, and Kings.