Patrick Beverley and Russell Westbrook are taking their battle beyond the court after a tense game has spilled over to Twitter and post-game press conferences. The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 124-104 earlier tonight, with Karl-Anthony Towns and Patrick Beverley mocking Westbrook after he air-balled an open three.
Westbrook was asked about the behavior of the T’Wolves players after the game where he brushed it off by saying that those players haven’t achieved anything to make him care about their trash talk. With the history between Beverley and Westbrook, there was no question that Beverley will clap back the first chance he gets.
That is exactly what happened after Beverley hopped on Twitter to quote tweet Westbrook’s quote and distinguished his focus on team achievements rather than individual numbers.
Playoffs every year. 2 western conference finals with 2 different Teams👀👀👀 individual stats or team stats? I thought it was a team sport?? https://t.co/wlPhFB9alQ
— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) March 17, 2022
Beverley is spot on. While his individual career will never be as glittering as Westbrook’s, he has made a name for himself as a winning player. Since his first season in the league, Beverley has made the Playoffs every single year. He made the Western Conference Finals with the Houston Rockets and then again last season with the LA Clippers. He has been instrumental in bringing the Timberwolves from years of purgatory to back in playoff contention.
Westbrook has an NBA Finals appearance to his name, but he also hasn’t made it out of the second round of the playoffs since 2016. He has been a consistent first-round exit except in 2020 when his Houston Rockets team fell to his current team in the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.
The battle between these rivals will never stop with the years of disrespect from both sides. However, this is the first time Beverley has been in a position to respond to Russ by also being a better on-court player. It’s been a tough season for the Lakers and an exceptionally tough one for Russell Westbrook.
