Patrick Beverley sets a new goal: Beat L.A.
The Lakers traded Patrick Beverley to help their playoff push. His new mission is to knock them out.
Beverley's Bulls play the Lakers twice in four nights, March 26 in LA and March 29 in Chicago. As much as Beverley wants to help his hometown Bulls climb into the playoffs from 11th place, he also wants to keep the 13th place Lakers out of the postseason. Both teams are two games out of 10th place, but the Lakers have two more teams to leapfrog.
On his podcast, Beverley said his goal for the Lakers matchups was to knock them out out the playoffs. "We got to get in the playoffs. So excuse us," Beverley said.
Beverley has missed the playoffs just once in his ten-year career, and his teams have never finished with a losing record. Getting the 26-33 Bulls back to .500 might be impossible in the remaining 23 games, but as we learned last season, Beverley is greatly motivated by revenge.
The Clippers traded Beverley to Memphis before the 2021-22 season in a tax-saving move. Beverley ended up on the Timberwolves, who beat his old team in the play-in tournament. PatBev did not hold back with his celebration.
Los Angeles traded Beverley to the Magic for center Mo Bamba, opting to go with D'Angelo Russell at point guard instead of Beverley, who started 45 games for the Lake Show. The Lakers added five new players at the deadline and six in the past month in a huge revamp of the team. They also added a very motivated opponent in Beverley.
Whether or not the Bulls climb into the playoffs, we can guarantee that Beverley will bring a playoff mentality into the games against his old team. And if the Bulls beat the Lakers in Chicago, he's probably going to throw his jersey into the crowd again.
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