Photo Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Patrick Beverley Says Damian Lillard Is The Toughest Player To Guard
Due to the league being stacked with elite offensive players, every defender has that one player who gives them most trouble than any other player. For Patrick Beverley, that player is none other than Damian Lillard.
Sitting on ‘The JJ Redick Podcast’, the 32-year old defensive guard explained why the Blazers point guard is his toughest defensive assignment. Beverley even revealed that Lillard pushed him to get better physically.
“Dame is one of the reasons why I went into the weight room. I told my guys, ‘Hey, I gotta get faster laterally. I don’t feel like I’m fast. I can’t keep up with the speed right now. I don’t know if I need to lose weight. I don’t know if I need to get stronger. I don’t know if I need to hire a new [insert profanity here] team. But I need to get [insert profanity here] faster. So I have you guys break that down.’
And so we worked a whole bunch and, you know, prime example, last year, iso play, game winner, and I get a stop on him. All that work for one play. One play! But hey, [insert profanity here] it. That’s how it is.”
Since 2013, Damian Lillard and Patrick Beverley have faced each other on 22 occasions, in the regular season. In those games, Lillard has averaged 22.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game on 41.4% shooting while playing against Beverley’s Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers later in his career.
The two players matched up for one playoff series. That being the 2014 Western Conference First Round between the Blazers and the Rockets where Lillard averaged 25.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game on 46.8% shooting from the field.
Both the Los Angeles Clippers and the Portland Trail Blazers are coming back for the upcoming NBA restart in Orlando, Florida. The two teams are set to face each other on August 8.
