Paul breaks Beverley en route to title shot
Guard gets ‘last laugh’ as fight with fiery rival ends
LOS ANGELES — Chris Paul certainly got the last laugh.
Two days after Patrick Beverley mocked him after being called for a flagrant 1 in Game 5, Paul and the Phoenix Suns blasted the Los Angeles Clippers, 130-103, Wednesday night in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals — and broke the fiery Beverley near the end of the game.
“It hurt,” Paul said with a scowl during his postgame Zoom media interview at STAPLES Center. “It stings.”
The Clippers guard pushed Paul from behind after Paul walked by him while heading to the Suns bench for a timeout with Phoenix up, 118-92 and 5:49 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“We knew we broke them,” Suns forward Jae Crowder said. “There’s no better sign of defeat during that moment where competition meets. You can’t do anything else to help your team overcome that situation. They’re just broke.” Beverley was ejected from the game. “Over the years, people have talked junk to me and a lot of times, I usually say something back, but I’ve changed a little,” Paul said with a smile. “A little, and I just kept thinking, if we do what we’re supposed to do, I’ll get the last laugh.”
Scoring 41 points in tying a career playoff-high, Paul later received a technical foul with 2:01 remaining before being subbed out of the game. The 16-year veteran celebrated with his teammates as he’s making his first ever trip to the NBA Finals.
“It’s great to see him get over that hump in his career,” Crowder said. “It’s great to give him that opportunity to play for it all, be the last team standing.”
Paul’s postseason has had its share of ups and downs.
He suffered a shoulder injury in Game 1 of the first round against the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers, but recovered from that to score 37 points in a closeout victory of the Denver Nuggets in the conference semifinals.
Then Paul tested positive for COVID-19, which led to him missing Game 1 and 2 of the conference finals against the Clippers under the NBA’s health and safety protocols. He shot poorly (5-of-19 for 15 points) and suffered a right hand injury of torn ligaments in his return in a Game 3 loss.
Two games later in Game 5 in Phoenix, Paul took a hard foul on his tailbone after Beverley, who was fighting over a screen from Deandre Ayton, collided with him in the third quarter of a 116-102 defeat.
After the play, Beverley mocked the fall to suggest Paul flopped. While Beverley was mocking the situation with the sellout crowd of 16,664 booing him, Ayton and Mikal Bridges stared at the Clippers guard as he walked away from the scene.
After the game, Suns coach Monty Williams said he didn’t think the play was dirty, but called it “dangerous” as Paul went down in a heap.
“Some of the stuff that’s happening, it is what it is, but when a guy does that kind of stuff consistently,” Williams said after Game 5. “What do you say as a coach? I can call the league. I can talk to the officials in the NBA. It doesn’t do anything until something is done about it. Those kind of plays are dangerous.”
Two days later, Paul got the last laugh as the second-seeded Suns won the bestof-7 series, 4-2, over the fourth-seeded Clippers — and broke Beverley.
“You stay the course long enough, your break them and that’s what we did,” Paul said.