Patrick Beverley is among the NBA’s top instigators, often blurring the line between hard, aggressive play and crossing it into being dangerous. On Thursday night, Beverley faced Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns and crossed that line with an intentional foul as Paul brought the ball up through the backcourt.
Beverley upended Paul and tossed in a little chicken wing to cause Paul to flip to the ground, leading to a bit of a kerfuffle at midcourt as Beverley happily took ownership of the foul and Jae Crowder and others from the Suns took offense to his antics.
https://twitter.com/TheNBAHustle/status/1380375434139865088
Paul, as he does, certainly sold it, but upon review, the referees determined it was a Flagrant 2 foul on Beverley and he was ejected from the game. That decision wasn’t a massive surprise as it was very much on the borderline of a Flagrant 1 and 2, and given Beverley’s history he is not one to earn the benefit of the doubt. It also was the latest chippy moment in a game that had a few dust-ups, so the referees were also trying to keep the game from spiraling, and, in a situation like that, having Beverley off the court is going to help keep things from escalating further. The Suns were able to cut the Clippers lead to as few as four afterwards, but Paul George stayed red-hot and pushed L.A. back to a double-digit lead shortly after, en route to a 113-103 L.A. win.
