After their last meeting, Russell Westbrook said the LA Clippers’ Patrick Beverley doesn’t guard anyone. He’ll have a chance to prove that wrong tonight.
As if Patrick Beverley needs more motivation to give a game his all, he may have some tonight. The LA Clippers host the Houston Rockets after just dropping a game to them just nine days ago.
After that game in which James Harden scored 47 points, Westbrook talked about Beverley to the media. After his comments, expect Bev to be extra fired up tonight.
"“What’d James score? 44? 47? Pat Bev trick y’all, man, like he playing defense. He don’t guard nobody, man. He just running around, doing nothing.”"
Beverley did foul out of the game, received a technical and only managed seven points, two rebounds and assist. I’m sure that’s the only statistics Westbrook had looked at after the game.
What he didn’t see was that Harden was 0-4 from the field when Beverley was his primary defender and only scored 4 points from the free-throw line. The majority of Harden’s points came against Maurice Harkless and JaMychal Green.
Beverley, a two-time All-Defense team member, obviously does not just “run around” and “do nothing”. For tonight’s contest, Bev is not only going to be motivated to play well on the defensive end, but he is coming off his best performance of the season.
In Wednesday’s contest versus the Boston Celtics, Beverley was astounding. He led both teams with sixteen rebounds, dished out seven assists, had three steals, and blocked two shots. He did all of this while scoring 14 points, 12 of which came in clutch moments in both the fourth quarter and overtime.
The Beverley/Westbrook beef has some history to it, originating back when Beverley was part of the Rockets and Westbrook was on the Thunder. In a playoff series, Beverley injured Westbrook’s knee while diving for a ball. The two have had trouble with each other since.
The fuel added to the fire for tonight should make for an electric game. With Paul George and Kawhi Leonard both presumably playing, the Clippers and Rockets should be in for one heck of a fight. Thank goodness Beverley is on our side.