Patrick Beverley was a big reason why the Clippers were even in their Western Conference Finals series with the Suns, forcing it back to a Game 6 in L.A. thanks in large part to his defense on Devin Booker and Chris Paul.
However, things came unraveled for L.A. in the fourth quarter as Chris Paul absolutely torched them down the stretch, erupting for 41 points on 16-for-24 shooting including 31 in the second half, as he looked to turn out the lights on his former team and reach his first Finals. After hitting another three-pointer to force the Clippers to call timeout, Paul took a bit of a victory lap around his old stomping grounds.
37 POINTS FOR CP3! @Suns in control, 5:49 left on ESPN pic.twitter.com/wiGUccpp6Q
— NBA (@NBA) July 1, 2021
As he returned to the Phoenix bench, he gave Beverley a look — it didn’t even appear as though he said anything to Beverley — and Pat simply snapped, running over and shoving Paul to the ground from behind.
Patrick Beverley was ejected after shoving Chris Paul from behind. pic.twitter.com/z0GFL1tb6J
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 1, 2021
He was swiftly ejected and rightfully so, and it was clear that the Clippers had finally had enough of this series after showing a ton of resiliency for so long this postseason. Paul would pop up and celebrate finally getting Beverley to snap — he’d been trying earlier to get DeMarcus Cousins to, leading to an all-time flop from CP3 to pick up a T on Boogie — by walking around with his hands raised, triumphant, as he was on his way to the Finals for the first time and got the job done by getting under the skin of Beverley as he sent his former team packing.