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All-Stars or also-rans, small forwards in for a battle against Pistons’ Marcus Morris

If Marcus Morris thought he had a night to catch his breath, Stan Van Gundy had something else in mind. After matching up with a wave of Hall of Famers over the past 10 days, Toronto represented something of a break for Morris – and especially with its top two small forwards, DeMarre Carroll and James Johnson, out with injuries.

The way Van Gundy saw it, that freed him to shift Morris to Toronto’s All-Star shooting guard, DeMar DeRozan.

“He’s a great player – he’s an All-Star,” Morris said after the Pistons lost 103-89 to a hot team having a great night. “Every night, I feel like I’ve got somebody.”

The matchup with DeRozan came on the heels of ones with the likes of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Paul George and Joe Johnson. It’s not a job for the faint hearted.

“You can’t be afraid of failure if you’re going to guard LeBron, Carmelo, Paul George, guys like that,” Van Gundy said of the burden put on Morris’ shoulders in his first season as a full-time NBA starter. “There are going to be nights you get lit up. Those guys are who they are. So if you’re afraid of that, then you can’t go out and battle. Marcus continues to battle and there are going to be nights guys get the best of you.”

George got the best of Morris as the Pistons lost 112-104 at Indiana on Saturday, erupting for 30 points and getting to the foul line to hit 14 of 15 shots. That lifted the scoring average of opposing small forwards to 16.3 points a game against the Pistons this year; only Dallas, at 16.2, has a better figure. And the .388 shooting accuracy small forwards have managed against the Pistons this season ranks as the top figure in the league.

Translation: Marcus Morris gets the best of his matchup more often than not.

“The thing with Marcus is he’ll battle everybody,” said Van Gundy, who has praised Morris’ no-excuses approach often. “He’s not a guy who has the reputation of being a great defender or a stopper, but he won’t back off. He’ll take the responsibility. He wants the challenge. He’s going to go out and battle.”

Inside the locker room, Morris has the reputation of a player who doesn’t say much but gets full attention when he does. Lately, Morris has bristled at the inconsistencies of the Pistons and the way their defensive intensity ebbs and flows.

“It definitely comes and goes,” he said. “It’s up and down. I think we’re just a little bit soft as a team right now. I don’t really want to say that, but we just need to turn it around. I don’t think we physically impose our will on anybody to the point where they can feel us. Good teams, you can feel where they are and how focused they are.”

Even as Morris offered up a blunt assessment of his team’s defense – “terrible, been bad,” he said – and the strange pattern of alternating good halves with bad within the same game, he doesn’t spare himself from criticism.

“That’s immaturity as a team,” he said. “I’m a part of this team, so me, too. Personally, it’s immaturity. Instead of stepping on their neck and putting them away, we change what works. Sometimes I don’t understand it, but it happens. We play a great first half and do everything we’re supposed to and then the second half, it’s like we just forget.”

The fight that Morris brings to his individual matchups reveals his personality, a feistiness Van Gundy was especially eager to add to the mix when the Pistons acquired Morris from Phoenix last July. When Van Gundy defines leadership, that’s what matters most to him – attacking your assignment with 100 percent effort and focus. He’s never quibbled with anything Morris has given him on that score.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that he’s better than we thought he was defensively,” he said. “But what we noticed right off he was a very, very willing guy and competitive. He takes the challenge. He takes things personally.”

When going against a go-to player like James or Anthony or George, Morris tries to establish his presence immediately.

“I try to show them it’s going to be physical throughout the game,” he said. “I try to impose my physical will on them. Try to not let them get comfortable, even though they’re good players – they’re probably used to all kinds of things. I try to get up in them early and not let them be comfortable.”

Though Morris isn’t especially demonstrative, his pride often manifests itself in anger when he feels victimized by the officials. He’s tied with Draymond Green for third in technical fouls with 10, one behind Dwight Howard and DeMarcus Cousins. It’s usually a reaction to getting called for fouls he doesn’t feel are reciprocated at the other end. Remember the galling January loss at Memphis when Morris got stripped with less than 10 seconds to play and the Grizzlies won at the buzzer? The NBA admitted the next morning that Morris should have been awarded free throws instead.

But he knows the numbers that show opposing small forwards are in for tough nights against the Pistons and he wears it like a badge of honor.

“When I come out on the court, I’m going to give 100 percent. I’m not going to come because of who a person is and back off,” he said. “I’m not afraid to mix it up and get dirty and play real hard and try to shut my guy down. It means