Celtics' Morris, Brown downplay shoving incident

Boston Celtics teammates Marcus Morris and Jaylen Brown finally spoke to reporters Saturday, two days after a camera caught Morris pushing Brown during a timeout in a loss to the Miami Heat. Both players downplayed the incident, attributing it to on-court frustrations.

"Nothing major," Brown said, via NBC's Chris Forsberg. "Let it go. Move on."

The veteran Morris expounded further, saying that as a team leader, part of his job is to keep other players accountable.

"I know that social media will make a big deal about something like that," he said. "I feel as though I'm one of the leaders on this team so if I have an engagement with any of my teammates, we all know that it's basketball related and it goes nothing past the court. Just two guys that both care about the game and that's all it was."

Brown has been wildly inconsistent this season, and struggled again Thursday. In a season-low 14 minutes, he shot 1-of-5 in Miami's 115-99 blowout win. The loss was Boston's first in five games.

Celtics coach Brad Stevens, meanwhile, jokingly said his attention was focused on the oft-cantankerous Marcus Smart playing peacemaker by separating Morris and Brown.

"How about Smart breaking it up?" Stevens said. "Talk about growth, holy smokes. I thought he would be in the middle of one of those ... you guys all looked at it as a negative, I could not believe what I was seeing."