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Pat Beverley on Warriors Without Kevin Durant: 'Y'all Cheated Long Enough'
October 25, 2019
Los Angeles Clippers guard Patrick Beverley joked with arena workers at the Golden State Warriors' new home, Chase Center, about the departure of Kevin Durant after the team's 141-122 victory over the Dubs on Thursday night.
The previously dominant Warriors looked like mere mortals, and Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports provided comments Beverley made during a light-hearted exchange with the staff.
"Y'all a little different without KD, I see," he said. "Uh-huh, y'all cheated long enough. It's OK. Y'all had a good run. Back to reality."
Meanwhile, Clippers forward Maurice Harkless said Golden State's new arena doesn't feature the same imposing nature as its old stomping grounds, Oracle Arena, which was one of the league's loudest stops for visiting teams, per Haynes.
"This is not Oracle," Harkless said. "At Oracle, it's loud from the jump. Those fans brought it. It's not the same here. Maybe it's because how we played, but it's not the same feel."
Along with Durant's exit to join the Brooklyn Nets—his status for the 2019-20 season is unsettled as he recovers from a ruptured Achilles suffered during the 2019 NBA Finals—the Warriors are also without star guard Klay Thompson because of a torn ACL suffered in the Finals.
It's transformed the Dubs from the annual championship favorite into a team that would need everything to fall into place perfectly in order to win a title. While that's good for the league's overall parity, it wasn't the ideal situation to open a new arena.
Even Warriors head coach Steve Kerr made a similar comment as Beverley about being back to reality after the blowout loss in the season opener, per Haynes.
"It doesn't feel very good. Losing stinks," Kerr said. "It's no fun. This is more of the reality of the NBA. The last five years we've been living in a world that isn't supposed to exist. Five years basically, record-wise, the best stretch anybody has had over five years. This is reality."
Golden State still has enough talent to make some noise in the loaded Western Conference, but it's going to take time to reach that level. It's not a simple walk in the park for the Warriors anymore.
Beverley, one of the NBA's top trash talkers, seems to relish that fact.