LeBron James and Thomas Bryant will get much of the love for the Los Angeles Lakers’ improbable comeback victory over the Portland Trail Blazers Sunday night, but there was another huge catalyst in the win as well. While Patrick Beverley scored just four points on the night, he was a game-high +27 and was the primary defender on Trail Blazers star point guard Damian Lillard.
While Lillard finished with 24 points on the night, he shot just 5-of-17 from the field and 3-of-13 from 3-point range. In the fourth quarter, Lillard missed all four of his shots as the Lakers completed their comeback, ultimately winning by nine points.
Late in the game, Beverley could be seen mocking Lillard’s ‘Dame Time’ celebration and when talking to the media after the game, Beverley didn’t care for Lillard’s struggles being classified as a bad shooting night as opposed to getting credit for his defense, via Ball Is Life:
“If he would have cooked me you would have said ‘I couldn’t guard him,’ but he misses a couple shots and it’s a ‘slow shooting night’ I understand… Good job on Dame sounds better… Always good to see Dame, hell of a point guard in this league. His ability to shoot it from the logo puts pressure on your defense. I think it was a team effort tonight, it wasn’t one man.”
While many don’t care for the antics of the Lakers guard, he does make a good point about getting credit for making things difficult. A bad shooting night can be used as a cop-out for a star player instead of giving credit to the defense. Nonetheless, Lillard was not impressed with Beverley’s words as he made clear on Twitter:
Con man. Flip from above the rim https://t.co/EpKvfyY3VG
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) January 23, 2023
For those unfamiliar with the 1994 cult classic basketball movie ‘Above The Rim,’ Flip was a homeless man played by the late, great comedian Bernie Mac. In the movie, Flip would often mess with the main characters and tell stories about how good he was during his time, but was never believed by those he talked to.
The Lakers’ agitator took Lillard’s comments all in stride, however, enjoying the fact that he had gotten into Lillard’s head and being entertained by it all:
He mad. Entertaining
— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) January 23, 2023
Beverley and Lillard were jawing back and forth all game with Beverley even picking up a technical foul in the second quarter. But that is why the Lakers brought him in this past offseason and he did his job perfectly on Sunday night.
Lakers acquire forward Rui Hachimura from the Wizards
Some reinforcements are now set to come in for the Lakers as well as the team has agreed to trade guard Kendrick Nunn and three second-round picks to the Washington Wizards for forward Rui Hachimura.
The ninth overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Hachimura is averaging 13.4 points and 4.3 rebounds this season and is coming off his best game of the year, a 30-point outing against Orlando in which he made 13-of-22 from the field and 3-of-5 from 3-point range.
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