After missing four months of action with whiplash, Heat forward Markieff Morris will make his return to the floor Saturday night against the Timberwolves.
Miami announced Morris will be available to play for the first time since taking a hard shot in the back from Nuggets center Nikola Jokić when the teams met in Denver on Nov. 8. He has missed 58 consecutive games in that span.
Morris sustained the injury during a dust-up with Jokic that began after he delivered a hard bump to the 7-footer late in the matchup with Denver up 111-94. As Morris walked away after being called for a foul, Jokic quickly charged him and hit him in the spine with his forearm, jerking his head and neck. It took several moments for Morris to collect himself before walking off the floor under his own power; both players were ejected from the game.
The aftermath of the scuffle saw Jokic receive a one-game suspension without pay while Morris was assessed a $50,000 fine for the Flagrant Foul 2 that triggered the altercation. The situation also led to an extended war of words involving Markieff and brother Marcus Morris and the Jokic brothers, though the feud has seemingly quieted down since January.
A reliable role player throughout his 14 NBA seasons, Morris’s return comes at an ideal time for the first-place Heat (45–23) who sit 2.5 games in front of the Bucks (42–25) with less than a month remaining in the season.
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