Patrick Beverley too-smalled Chris Paul and gave another magical moment

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— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) December 20, 2022

We have seen the Phoenix Suns’ rivalry with the entire New Orleans Pelicans team over the past few weeks.

Monday night against a Los Angeles Lakers squad missing a handful of key players, including LeBron James and Anthony Davis, we saw the Suns’ beef with a single man.

Patrick Beverley was good to go against the home team that was also missing a few starters like Devin Booker. Considering his playoff history with Chris Paul and this season’s shove of Deandre Ayton, you would not be a smart bettor to assume the game Monday went on without any drama before a 130-104 Phoenix win.

With Los Angeles down 70-44 early in the third quarter, Beverley scored and drew a foul on Paul. He proceeded to “too-small” the Suns point guard.

While we love any and all celebrations, the context of the score didn’t exactly scream “now is the time to do the too-small gesture.”

Paul was asked after the game for his reaction to Beverley’s decision.

“Yeah, you can’t pay attention to that stuff,” the Suns guard said. “That ain’t new. He didn’t come up with it, you know, but just play basketball.”

Suns PG Chris Paul said he didn’t see Lakers G Patrick Beverley do the “too small” celebration while being down 26 points. pic.twitter.com/Fhw9lHupOw

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) December 20, 2022

Paul finished with a season-best 28 points to go with eight assists and no turnovers while shooting 50%.

Beverley closed with nine points and three dimes and three turnovers. One of those giveaways created another magical PatBev moment.

This whole sequence from Patrick Beverley is elite. #Suns #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/iw7g9xOY6X

— Suns Geek On YouTube (@sunsgeek) December 20, 2022

A drive to the hoop, just after his too-small gesture, was cut off by Paul. The Lakers guard spun, got bodied and lost his balance, eating the travel to at least make it a dead-ball turnover.

Beverley then got back on defense and gave Paul a butt tap, triggering Paul to swipe the Lakers guard’s hand away from him.

Suns fans might hate the man for his history of shoving Phoenix players who have their backs turned to him, but there’s no denying he produces a well of endless entertainment.

I mean, look at a carefully curated selection of PatBev headlines on this very website:

– Clippers’ Pat Beverley mocks Suns’ Chris Paul after Flagrant 1 in Game 5

– Patrick Beverley ejected after Chris Paul dagger in Suns-Clippers Game 6

– Patrick Beverley: Suns ‘should’ve benched Chris (Paul)’ in Game 7 vs. Mavericks

– Patrick Beverley ejected after shoving Deandre Ayton

– Lakers’ Patrick Beverley would shove Suns’ Deandre Ayton all over again

That’s not all of them!

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