LA Clippers: Kawhi Leonard, Patrick Beverley named All-Defensive 2nd Team

The LA Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard and Patrick Beverley have been named to the NBA All-Defensive 2nd Team.

According to Shams Charania, both of the LA Clippers’ Patrick Beverley and Kawhi Leonard have been named as members of the NBA All-Defensive Second Team.

The two teams breakdown as follows:

All-Defensive First Team

• Giannis Antetokounmpo
• Anthony Davis
• Rudy Gobert
• Marcus Smart
• Ben Simmons

All-Defensive Second Team

• Bam Adebayo
• Patrick Beverley
• Eric Bledsoe
• Kawhi Leonard
• Brook Lopez

It’s hard to argue against anyone on the first team, so Kawhi and Bev on the second team make sense. Kawhi famously doesn’t play in all of his team’s games as he load manages so the fact that he is seen as such a defensive threat despite not always being on the court is great. This is the sixth time in his career that Leonard has been named to an All-Defensive team. (3 1st Team, 3 2nd Team).

Bev should also feel a little redemption after he has been berated on the internet all season for not playing defense. These claims stemmed from Russel Westbrook who, after a game versus the Clippers, stated, “Pat Bev trick y’all man like he play defense. He don’t guard nobody man. He’s just running around, doing nothing.”

Obviously voters disagreed, putting Beverley down as one of the top ten defenders this season. In fact, this is Beverley’s third time being a member of the All-Defensive team. (1 1st Team, 2 2nd Team)

The NBA released the voting, which you can see on their page but here’s how Leonard and Beverley’s voting broke down:

• Beverley: 15 1st Team Votes, 30 2nd Team Votes
• Leonard: 33 1st Team Votes, 62 2nd Team Votes

This is a big honor for both players and just helps to exemplify why the Clippers have been picked as a favorite to win the Finals all season. Their defensive capability coupled with Paul George, Marcus Morris, and Ivica Zubac makes their starting five an elite defensive unit.