Patrick Beverley is one of the more outspoken players in the NBA and being eliminated from the playoffs in Round 1 has certainly not stopped him from giving his opinion on what’s going on now.
Beverley recently went on NBA Today on ESPN and he picked the Dallas Mavericks to upset the Phoenix Suns in Game 7, citing Luka as the reason behind his thought process. So, it was expected that Bev would have his eyes glued to the television for the game and he witnessed the Mavs destroy the Suns in some style. During the game, he tweeted that the Suns might try to bring up the injury excuse at some point after the game.
Yal stay locked in, let’s see who pulls the fake hurt move down a dub
— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) May 16, 2022
“Yal stay locked in, let’s see who pulls the fake hurt move down a dub”
It is often the case that when a team gets knocked out, we tend to hear after the series that someone was nursing an injury as an excuse for it. Beverley’s prediction would in fact come true after the game, as Marc Spears tweeted out that Chris Paul might have been injured during the series.
Suns point guard Chris Paul limped out of the arena with a very slow walk. @andscape learned that Paul had a left quad injury. When asked about his quad injury, Paul declined comment.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) May 16, 2022
“Suns point guard Chris Paul limped out of the arena with a very slow walk. @andscape learned that Paul had a left quad injury. When asked about his quad injury, Paul declined comment.”
While the injury would definitely explain why Paul’s play fell off completely after that incredible performance in Game 2, it is still hard to not be a bit cynical about it. Paul has a reputation for playoff meltdowns and this was the 5th time in his playoff career that his team had blown a 2-0 lead, which is a record.
Whether fair or foul, he is not going to get the benefit of the doubt here thanks to all of his failures in the postseason in the past. This particular playoff loss is going to sting for a while after their success in the regular season and you wonder how many more chances Paul has at finally getting that elusive NBA championship.
