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Wolves guard Patrick Beverley loves to talk trash. Patrick Beverley also very much does not love Suns guard Chris Paul.
Those two facts combined in spectacular fashion Monday morning when Beverley made the rounds on ESPN's talk shows in the aftermath of Paul and Phoenix spectacularly flaming out at home in the second round of their playoff series with a Game 7 loss to Dallas.
Paul had just 10 points in the game and only 47 in the final five games of the series, four of which were won by Dallas after rallying from a 2-0 series deficit, which Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Monday's Daily Delivery podcast.
Dallas attacked Paul relentlessly, which led to big claim No. 1 from Beverley: Paul "can't guard" anybody, which he told Stephen A. Smith on "Get Up."
Now: Before we get too deep on some of the other things Beverley said, it's probably good to remember the nature of their beef.
They did battle even back in high school, and Beverley served a one-game suspension in the playoffs last year after shoving Paul. Some of this is just Beverley's nature, too.
But now back to specifics of what Beverley said.
Beverley said the Suns should have benched Paul. Of particular note, Pat Bev said the Wolves wanted to play Phoenix in the first round, The prevailing wisdom among most of us is that Minnesota gained a much-preferred matchup when it defeated the Clippers in the play-in to face Memphis.
It's all revisionist history. The Wolves played Memphis tough and very well could have won that series. But the Suns had trouble with the No. 8 seed Pelicans — until Paul, let's not forget, went 14-for-14 from the field to close the series in Game 6 — and lost to a good but not great Mavericks team.
Paul was largely credited with being the ignition for the Suns this year as they cruised to a 64-win season and seemed to be a strong favorite to win the West and perhaps the entire NBA title.
Whether he simply ran out of gas in the series or whether some larger deficiency was exploited is a good question for the Suns this offseason.
But if you needed another reason to circle a Wolves vs. Suns game on your calendar next season, Beverley provided plenty of fodder on Monday.
