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Few players have had as many cracks at trying to stop Luka Doncic than Patrick Beverley. The three-time All-Defensive team selection has been a nuisance agains the Dallas Mavericks wunderkind throughout his brief, but dynamic NBA career.
In a recent appearance on JJ Redick's Old Man and the Three podcast, Patrick Beverley was asked about what it was like defending the Mavs star and what makes it such a unique challenge.
“His intelligence,” Pat Bev said sternly. “He's physical as f–k and flops at the same time, which is the exact same thing as I do. He initiates the contact and hits you.”
Luka Doncic isn't the most athletic star out there, but his cerebral and crafty nature makes him a tough cover for anyone in the league, Pat Bev included.
Article Continues Below“It's not muscle in him,” continued Beverley on the Mavs star. “That's no disrespect to his body or anything, but that's just how he's made up. It's kind of that flabby solid type just leaning on you. Then when you lean on him back then he put his head up and put the pressure on the referees. So you can't really guard him physically like the way I wanna guard him.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=82&v=-qMnLoUwyGk&feature=emb_title
Beverley has been in the same conference as Doncic, leading to several regular season matchups against one another. But it's in the back-to-back playoff clashes that Beverley has really gotten the chance to test Luka's mettle, with 13 playoff games between the Clippers and Mavericks in the last two seasons. It's also led to a few fun moments between both men in particular.
Luka big bucket on Pat Bev late, has words for him all the way down the floor pic.twitter.com/lPAwTADLdb
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) May 26, 2021
Despite failing to advance both times, Luka Doncic clearly lived up to his billing by averaging 33.5 points on nearly 50% shooting from the field. This while also averaging 8.8 free throw attempts per game, exhibiting the type of guile that Patrick Beverley emphasized.
