Despite Their Game 1 Dust-Up, Steph Curry Doesn’t Think Patrick Beverley Is A Dirty Player

The Houston Rockets would probably like to forget most of what happened during their blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of their first-round series. In fact, the only moment they showed even a little bit of fight was when Patrick Beverley got into a brief-but-relatively-harmless tussle with Steph Curry (who arguably escalated the whole thing) after playing a little overzealous defense.

There’s no love lost between the two, but when reporters prodded Curry with the question of whether he believes Beverley is a dirty player, the reigning MVP quickly scoffed at that notion and more or less praised him for his scrappy defense. Via Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN.com:

“Nah, he’s an aggressive player,” Curry said. “He plays hard. He tries to get under your skin with certain things that he does, but that’s kind of his M.O. I wouldn’t call it dirty at all.”

Considering the outcome, it follows that Curry would be dismissive about the efficacy of Beverley’s style. The Rockets guard neither got in Curry’s head, nor was he able to slow him down in the least, as he finished with 24 points and seven rebounds on 8-of-12 shooting, including 5-of-7 from behind-the-arc, in just under 20 minutes of action en route to a dominant 104-78 win.

(ESPN.com)

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