Markieff Morris had weakest excuse for Lakers’ loss to Hawks

Markieff Morris came up with an excuse this weekend worthy of a sad song on the world’s smallest violin.

The Los Angeles Lakers forward finished with 12 points on 5-for-13 shooting during Saturday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks. After the game, Morris blamed the loss on the noon tip-off time, saying that the league trapped the Lakers.

“They set us with a trap game, whatever you want to call it. I don’t care how the NBA feel about it,” he said, per Broderick Turner of the LA Times. “It was a trap game playing 20-year-olds at 12 o’clock in the afternoon. They trapped us.

“We just couldn’t really find it,” Morris continued. “Me, personally, I find all my shots were short. I end up making some late in the game, but throughout the game just really can’t get over the hump.”

Morris, 31, did not appear to be joking either. Here is video of his comments, where he was pretty clearly taking on a serious tone.

Truth be told, that excuse from Morris is pretty lame. Weekend matinee games are already nothing new. But now especially with the backdrop of the pandemic, every team in the NBA is having to play on unusual schedules. Even worse is the fact that the Lakers were actually the home team on Saturday. The Hawks were the ones who had to travel to Los Angeles and deal with the time difference.

If Morris wants to address the elephant in the room contributing to the loss, then fine. But blaming it on the tip-off time does a disservice to a surging Hawks team and reeks of the weakest excuse possible.