Patrick Beverley suspended one game for Game 6 shove

As expected, the NBA handed down a suspension for Patrick Beverley after he was ejected in the elimination game of the conference finals.

The Clippers guard will be suspended without pay for the first game of the 2021-22 season that he is eligible to play. What that means is that if Beverley is injured to start next year, or unable to play due to an illness or some other circumstance, his suspension would only kick in when he comes off the injury report.

All things considered, one game isn’t a terrible outcome for Beverley. Given the history of players committing nonsensical fouls on their way out of the playoffs, multiple games seemed like a more likely suspension. Perhaps Beverley was spared further punishment because of his apology, or because the incident didn’t escalate beyond his shove.

Beverley has previously been fined five times for his on-court antics, per Law Murray of The Athletic. This is the first time he has actually been suspended.

This is the first time a Clipper has been suspended since February 2016, when Blake Griffin had to sit out four games after a punching a team employee. The main difference is that suspension was given by the team itself, not the league. A Clipper hasn’t been suspended by the NBA since April 2014, when Griffin got a one-game ban for reaching the regular season technical foul limit.

Last year, Lou Williams received an extended quarantine after violating the protocols fo the league bubble, but that didn’t classify as being suspended.

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