Getty Los Angeles Clippers guard Patrick Beverley
Los Angeles Clippers’ Patrick Beverly is the new Gary Payton.
Well…at least that’s what NBA Hall of Famer, Shaquille O’Neal thinks.
On Sunday’s edition of TNT’s Inside The NBA, Shaq said that “Patrick Beverley is a modern day Gary Payton.”
.@SHAQ on #INSIDETHENBA: “Clippers’ Patrick Beverly is a modern day Gary Payton”
That’s high praise from the Big Diesel, a former teammate of Payton’s when they were members of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat.
For those keeping score at home: Payton is a nine-time NBA All-Star, nine-time NBA All-Defensive team selection and 2013 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. The Glove averaged 16.3 points and 6.7 assists during his career and holds the disctinction of being the only point guard in NBA history to win the Defensive Player of the Year award.
He’s also known to trash talk a bit.
Many NBA legends list Payton as one of the biggest trash talkers along with Larry Bird and Michael Jordan.
Payton’s trash talk stood out according to Perkins and his opponents often took note on the basketball court. “He talks trash and I could not understand what he was saying on the court,” Sam Perkins, Payton’s Seattle Sonics teammate, told me last month on the Scoop B & Reg Podcast.
“Gary’s was a scowl and look at you and want to turn his head sideways,” NBA Champion and current TNT analyst, Steve Smith told me last week.
As for Patrick Beverley?
Beverley was crucial in the Los Angeles Clippers’ 135-131 Game 2 NBA Playoffs win over the Golden State Warriors last night at Oracle Arena.
Beverly made key defensive stops to help the Clippers erase a 31 point defecit.
Everyone has their own way to celebrate a special moment, and for Los Angeles Clippers guard Patrick Beverley, his is more than a bit unique. The Los Angeles Clippers capped off the wildest comeback in NBA playoff history by overcoming a 31-point deficit against the defending champion Golden State Warriors on Monday night.
The game was essentially out of hand even before halftime, when Doc Rivers’ squad trailed 73-50, but it only got worse from there. Then, the Clippers flipped a switch after the score moved to 94-63 with 7:31 left in the third quarter, going on a 31-14 run to end the third quarter. By the 6:26 mark of the fourth quarter, the Clippers had cut the lead to single digits and were left with plenty of time to complete the comeback.
Beverley’s trash talk has stood out. Such was the case in Game 1 of the Clippers, Warriors matchup where both Beverley and Durant were ejected from.
Aside from Beverley, the Clippers are a solid team.
Yet…..they have no star power.
Per Basketball Society Online: The Clippers rely on a scrappy roster fueled by the hard-nosed attitudes of Patrick Beverley and Montrezl Harrell while getting ‘just-add-water’ microwave offense from Lou Williams. Lou will have to have everything working for him on offense in order to keep Los Angeles in it.
The Warriors have the bodies and experience to make life hard on the defensive end.
Good defense is always susceptible to better offense, however, and once Williams gets hot there is nothing anyone can do.
“I enjoy going to Clippers’ games,” ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne tells Scoop B Radio.
“ I think the Clippers are one of the best watches in the NBA. They play hard, they have a great system, they’re always working together, you don’t see people ball-hogging it, and they have this pick-and-roll between Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams and every team that plays them says the same thing, you know that’s coming, you know that’s what they’re going to do, and they still beat you with it every damn time. They’ve just got that down, I think Lou Williams is fun, Montrezl might be one of my favorite players these days, he’s a really good dude, didn’t know he had all that kind of offensive game when he came into the league, right? Like you see this energy guy, but he plays hard, he and I, off the court, we sort of bonded because we both have little babies at home, we show each other baby pictures, these guys are easy to root for. And we complain about teams that tank, but the Clippers absolutely tanked. They could keep their pick if they tank, otherwise they give Boston a first-round pick, it would be better if they would get a better pick, but they don’t, they play hard and I really appreciate that, I think that’s kind of how you should do it.”