Patrick Beverley showed out on Tuesday night against the LA Clippers. He may have shown his whole ass after the Timberwolves’ 109-105 play-in game win. But Beverley also showed us how players like himself hang around the NBA for a decade.
Beverley is an irritant, a nuisance, someone whose sole purpose on the basketball court is to annoy and get inside his opponent’s head. He did that, and then some, last night to the team he felt disrespected him after four years of service following last season’s run to the Western Conference Finals.
From the first time Beverley checked into this game against the Clippers, he was running his mouth, and it probably didn’t stop until he went to sleep early this morning. In most cases, the importance of players like Beverley to their teams can’t be measured by stat lines. If you’ve never watched an entire Pat Bev game, you’re probably wondering why he’s even in the league.
Beverley scored seven points in the play-in game against the Clippers, grabbed 11 rebounds, and dished out three assists. But where his impact was really felt is how he was able to dig at his former teammates from Los Angeles and take them out of their games. Pat Bev brings heart, intensity, and he’s just downright annoying as hell to play against.
Beverley’s never wowed anyone with his athleticism like LeBron James or his shooting like Steph Curry, but what he carries around in his intangibles bag can’t be taught. Beverley’s an irritating assclown on the court, and he frequently turns it up to 100.
I’d compare Beverley to players like Lance Stephenson, Bruce Bowen, Dennis Rodman, and Draymond Green. All these players are known as tough defenders, but the head games they play with opponents set them apart from other defensive-minded ballers. Beverley was on a mission against the Clippers, and he completed. Pat Bev was in between their ears all night being a pain in the ass, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
The antics didn’t stop at the final buzzer of the fourth quarter. Oh, no. The Timberwolves, led by Beverley, celebrated their play-in victory as if they’d just won the NBA Finals. Beverley ran around the court, jumped up on the announcers table, pulled off his jersey, and tossed it into a sea of Twolves fans. Was it a bit much? Yes. But that type of emotion and passion for the game is why you have a Patrick Beverley on your team.
You can’t stand competing against these types of players, but you love having them on your team. I think every team needs an athlete like this. Someone who isn’t afraid to push the envelope and take that extra step to defeat an opponent. Beverley only scored seven points Tuesday night, but his defense, trash talk, and willingness to be a pest are priceless.
Beverley goaded Marcus Morris Sr. into his second technical foul with his antics at one point, but the referees quickly convened and reversed the call because they realized Morris would’ve been ejected. It was initially a double technical, but instead, the foul was only given to Bev. Something like that is why you want that player on your squad. The only way to shut that guy up is to beat him, and the Clippers failed to do that on this night.
But now he’s got to do that, potentially, for seven games against the Memphis Grizzlies. Another primarily young team like the Twolves, the Grizzlies, won 56 games this season and have the second-best record in the league. The Twolves and Grizzlies split their season series 2-2, so I think this will be a close series that goes six or seven games. Beverley will likely spend plenty of time guarding Ja Morant, so he will need to dig deep into his bag of tricks if he wants to throw Ja off his game.