Lakers News: Watch Patrick Beverley Troll LeBron James Mid-Game In Bulls' Win
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Yesterday while beating his prior club, your Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls starting point guard Patrick Beverley also contributed a hilarious troll of LA's best player, LeBron James, who had just returned to the lineup following his latest injury, a right foot tendon tear that kept him sidelined for a month.
In the below clip, via Mark Karantzoulis of CHGO Sports, you can see the 6'1" Beverley score on the 6'9" James (who doesn't barely even put a hand up) with an effortless turnaround one-handed floater, then make the ol' "too small" gesture to his old Lakers teammate not once, but twice, to make sure James sees it.
The Bulls, by the way, have gone 10-5 since signing Beverley off the buyout market (7-2 across their last nine contests), and rank second league-wide in overall defensive rating (110.5) during that stretch, Karantzoulis adds.
Another starrier former 2022-23 Lakers veteran point guard, Russell Westbrook, has led his Clippers to a sparkling... 6-8 record since joining Crypto.com Arena's other NBA franchise. The Clippers, by the way, are a significantly deeper, generally better team than these Bulls. Pat Bev may not have the same stat-padding numbers as Brodie, but there's not really a question which player impacts winning more.
That's not to say that moving on from Beverley and his $13 million in a deadline day trade to the Orlando Magic was the wrong deal for LA, as team president Rob Pelinka significantly re-balanced the club's roster with some savvy deadline moves.
LA head coach Darvin Ham had been playing Beverley out of position as his starting shooting guard due to a general deficit at the position (although it was pretty clear Austin Reaves, who's the starter now, should have probably been starting ahead of Beverley even then). Even though Mo Bamba, the young 3-and-D center LA got back for Beverley, is done for probably the rest of the season with a high left ankle sprain, Beverley's absence helped balance out the team's rotational minutes.
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