Despite the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers are sagging in the Western Conference standings and seem to be at risk of losing the season, guard Patrick Beverley is still sending out shots at his rivals.
Beverley’s latest message was sent to his longtime adversary Chris Paul. Paul, who is now on the Phoenix Suns, was once the star guard of the “Lob City” Los Angeles Clippers. Despite the great level of success that Paul enjoyed on the Clippers, he was never able to lead the team to a Western Conference Finals appearance.
That’s what Beverley pointed to in his remark. While Paul never managed to reach that level of success, Beverley was able to do so when he was on the Clippers in the 2020-21 season.
“Chris Paul was on the Clippers,” he said. “Then he left and I came on the Clippers. The Clippers went to the Western Conference Finals the only time. They didn’t go there with Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and the Lob City. They went there with me.
“For them to come in and ‘We’re only looking for you get 5 or 6 million dollars,’ I felt like that was the ultimate spit to my face when I literally just changed this whole organization around, we went to Western Conference finals. I didn’t think I got the fair end of the stick.”
Ironically, the Clippers’ playoff run that season was ended by none other than Paul and the Suns. Paul was masterful in that series, averaging 24.0 points, 8.8 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game.
As for Beverley, he put in 6.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.
For his entire career, Beverley has built a reputation of someone who is willing to talk a lot of trash. However, his arguments always seem to overlook some key aspects. While Paul was one of the key reasons his team advanced to the NBA Finals that season, Beverley was clearly nothing more than a role player.
Still, he’s free to have his own opinion on the matter, even if it seems a bit skewed.
This season, it’s hard to argue against the fact that Beverley has been part of the problem for the sputtering Lakers. He’s averaging 6.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game and is shooting a pretty horrible 37.8 percent from the field and 31.6 percent from deep.
If the Lakers want to have any hope of turning things around this season, Beverley is going to have to be one of several players who will need to improve.
Only time will tell if that group of ballers can actually achieve that goal.
