Bradley Beal receives a lot of hate from his former team Phoenix Suns, and has struggled with his performance.
The LA Clippers fell 115-102 to the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night at the Mortgage Matchup Center, where Beal was unable to step up as he had been expected to go hard against his former team.
The Clippers’ veteran guard contributed only five points, making two out of 14 shots from the field, in 20 minutes of play.
Meanwhile, head coach Tyronn Lue believes in Beal’s capabilities, as he has not yet reached his full potential due to a right knee injury that restricts his minutes.
“Basically, he definitely can do it… The minutes he’s going to be playing, I don’t think he can really go out and score 35, 40.” Beal is currently playing on a minutes restriction to manage a right knee injury,” Lue said.
Lue added that it was just an off night for him, noting that the Phoenix crowd booed Beal after seeing their former star with a different jersey.
“He’s slowly working towards where he’s trying to get to, and then tonight, just one of those days, just adding, stacking games, stacking days, and this would be another one he’s trying to stack.” All Beal had to do was get on the court and look solid, but the Phoenix crowd didn’t care about his lack of rhythm,” the head coach added.
It was nothing personal for Beal as he believes that he cannot please everyone, and said that he enjoyed his stint with the Phoenix.
“You got fans that didn’t like me here. You got fans that did like I was here. You can’t please everybody. I learned at a very young age. You drive yourself crazy trying to make everybody happy. I’ve enjoyed my time here. I’ve enjoyed playing for this organization. They made a decision. Move on. It is what it is. Don’t have any hard feelings. People are going to boo. It’s part of the game. It’s part of being a fan. I’ll see you Saturday,” Beal said.
The 32-year-old is slowly learning about his rhythm with the Clippers, as he is averaging 7.4 points, 1.4 assists, and 1 rebound with limited minutes in his five games this season.
He moved on and looks forward to bouncing back when they face his former team again on Saturday at the Intuit Dome.
