Wearing a sly smile and an Ivica Zubac jersey over his cream sweatshirt that draped well past his waist, Patrick Beverley walked to his sideline seat Thursday inside Crypto.com Arena.
The smile was the face of a man who’d pulled a surprise. Beverley said he had not told his former Clippers teammates that he would be in attendance, one night after his Minnesota Timberwolves played their final game before the NBA’s All-Star break. The jersey reflected a bond that began three years earlier between the fiery Chicago guard and a 7-footer from a small town on the Croatia-Bosnia & Herzegovina border.
As he did when he wore a Clippers jersey, and shorts, too, Beverley quickly drew attention. When Zubac scored on a deft turnaround on the opening possession, Beverley shot out of his chair and clapped while looking like a proud older brother. Clippers guard Reggie Jackson chatted up his former teammate during the earliest breaks in play. Team owner Steve Ballmer, who earlier this month shared a Timberwolves tweet asking for retweets “if you love @patbev21,” drifted over for a conversation between the first and second quarters.
The timing of Beverley’s surprise visit was impeccable. Facing one of the lowliest teams in the league, in the last game standing between this weary Clippers roster and the break they cannot wait to begin, was the exact recipe for a letdown that the Clippers could not afford with a postseason berth hardly guaranteed with 21 games remaining. In other words, it was the kind of circumstance where Beverley’s no-off-switch intensity was particularly valuable during his four seasons with the team.
Beverley “was a big part of this culture,” Terance Mann said. “Just seeing him there meant a lot for us. Even though we’re in the race in the playoffs [with Minnesota] it’s pretty cool.”
The Clippers, however, needed no outside energy in a 142-111 runaway in which they set a season-high for points. Two days before competing in the NBA’s three-point contest in Cleveland, guard Luke Kennard was afforded plenty of extra practice while making eight of nine three-pointers, one make away from tying a franchise record shared by Caron Butler, in 2012, and J.J. Redick, in 2016.
Kennard’s six threes set his career-high for a half and he celebrated by shaking his left shooting hand, as if to put out a fire. He finished with 25 points.
And it wasn’t Kennard alone. The Clippers made 59% of their first-half shots to score a season-high 71 points before halftime, by which time starting guard Reggie Jackson had needed only 19 minutes to record only his fourth double-double as a Clipper. He finished with 12 points and 14 assists, his most since 2017, Mann scored 20 points, his third time in four games with at least that many, and in the third quarter alone Marcus Morris Sr. scored 17 of his 27 points to allow Clippers starters an early start to their all-star break, with reserves playing the entirety of the final quarter.
Coach Tyronn Lue said he was wary of Houston’s youthful energy before tipoff, and Houston’s pace could be relentless. So was their carelessness. Missing guards Kevin Porter Jr. and Eric Gordon, the Rockets (15-43) already shaky defense could not keep up after 19 turnovers led directly to 36 Clippers points. Zubac had approached Beverley with a smile at halftime and left their catch-up with a slap of hands, and within minutes had his career-high 16th double-double of the season, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Zubac said he and Beverley still talk after nearly every game, a mixture of encouragement and smack talk, and it was during their chat Tuesday that Zubac told Beverley to stop by when he was in Los Angeles.
“That’s my guy, that’s my brother,” Zubac said. “He’s still on me about stuff I do in a game.”
Beverley wasn’t the only courtside spectator of note. Injured Paul George spent the second half clapping as Clippers opened a 28-point lead in the third quarter.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
