Patrick Beverley appears thankful that Lakers have early-season matchup with Clippers amid links to team

Though Patrick Beverley is no longer playing basketball in Los Angeles, he appears grateful for the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers have an early-season matchup this year.

The veteran point guard took to social media to express as much on Sunday evening.

Beverley played a number of years with the Clippers, and he recently made a case for why he thinks he’d be a great leader on the Lakers as well. The Lakers have also reportedly expressed interest in Beverley.

As fans in Los Angeles know quite well, both the Lakers and Clippers were not all that impressive last season. The Lakers missed out on the postseason entirely, and the Clippers lost both of their play-in tournament matchups to get bounced before the playoffs began.

Beyond that, both teams have dealt with major adversity. The Clippers were without Kawhi Leonard for the entirety of the 2021-22 season and didn’t have Paul George for the majority of the campaign.

As for the Lakers, star big man Anthony Davis missed a massive chunk of last season as well. LeBron James also missed a fair number of games.

The hope is that a full offseason for all of the aforementioned stars will have them all fit and ready to compete once the regular season begins. At their best, the Lakers and Clippers are certainly playoff teams, if not title contenders.

However, the NBA season is always a slog, and injuries are not easily avoided.

Hopefully, both teams will return to full strength this season and compete at a high level. After all, the NBA is simply more fun when the rivalry in Los Angeles is alive and well.