The NBA announced that Los Angeles Lakers guard Patrick Beverley has been suspended three games for shoving Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton in Tuesday night’s loss.
The altercation started when Austin Reaves was hit on the head by Devin Booker going up for a shot and fell to the ground. Booker momentarily stood over Reaves in a taunting manner despite fouling him. And then a few seconds later Ayton came over and did the same, which upset Beverley who came running in and shoved the Suns center to the ground.
After the officials reviewed the altercation, Beverley was ejected while Ayton was given a technical foul and Booker was assessed a flagrant 1 for the hit to the head.
In the press release announcing the suspension, the NBA said that Beverley’s suspension was “based in part on Beverley’s history of unsportsmanlike acts.”
Beverley was clearly not happy when finding out he will miss three games which will cost him $268,965 in salary:
Hear they trying to give me the book ??
— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) November 24, 2022
The Lakers’ next three games are a back-to-back on the road against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday and Saturday and then against the Indiana Pacers at home on Monday.
While L.A. will be without Beverley, they are getting back both LeBron James and Max Christie which puts them at full strength for the first time all year. Austin Reaves has been starting in James’ place the last few games and has thrived in that role so he will likely take Beverley’s spot when LeBron returns.
Beverley gives thoughts on altercation
After getting ejected, Beverley spoke postgame and gave his thoughts on everything that transpired.
“I was not upset about anything. From my point of view I felt like, obviously very unprofessional, it shouldn’t have happened first and foremost. But I’m a big fan of protecting my teammates, especially teammates that I go to war for every night. I kinda felt like the play kinda got out of control after the staredown at Austin Reaves by [Devin] Book[er], then another staredown by [DeAndre] Ayton and the refs didn’t really come in and kinda break it up, so you know I’m not going for that shit.
“So that’s what I saw. Obviously it’s unfortunate that it happened on national TV, but you know me regardless of what’s going on I’m a big fan of protecting my teammates, and I’m a foxhole guy. I put on a jersey, I commit to a team, I commit to a city, it’s kinda my motto, I’m a foxhole guy. Very unfortunate situation though.”
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