The Toronto Raptors shocked the basketball world with their unexpected victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday. While naysayers were trolling Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co. for the upset, Raptors players Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett took to Instagram and took shots at Patrick Beverley for certain comments that he had made.
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Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett were among the biggest contributions in orchestrating the 117-111 upset against the title contenders. While Quickley went off for a 25-point, 11-rebound, 9-assist near triple-double, the latter recorded an impressive 26-point, 7-rebound outing, per NBA.com.
Following the game, the two Raptors stars also decided to take direct shots at their opponent, Patrick Beverley. Sharing a series of photos on Instagram, Immanuel captioned his post ‘“Quickley…..potential dawg”’. Hyping up his teammate and joining in to troll Pat Bev, RJ commented “Pups”.
A few months ago, while analyzing the New York Knicks-Toronto Raptors trade, Beverley believed that both the Atlantic Division teams got better. However, while he was happy for OG Anunoby for being surrounded by “dogs”, the Bucks guard believed that the Canadian side added nothing more than “pups” to their roster.
Emphasizing his point, the defensive specialist added that he meant Quickley and Barrett were both “potential dogs”, something he likely meant as a compliment towards what the players could potentially become in the future. However, it appears that both players took the comments as a little bit of insult, rather than feeling honored by them.
Before the 2023-2024 season began, Patrick Beverley ripped apart the Raps for having no “dogs” on their team, something the franchise apparently sought to improve with the acquisition of Immanuel Quickley, and RJ Barrett, something the two players likely take a lot of pride in. So, after they were branded as nothing more than “pups” it is no wonder why they took offense.
This win was by no means a fluke. Earlier in the campaign, when Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby were still part of the Raptors, they handed the Wisconsin side a blowout 130-111 loss. In fact, the Toronto side is among the few teams who have won the regular season series against Doc Rivers’ boys this season.
Quickley and Barrett can expect a stern response from Patrick Beverley. Additionally, while all of the Bucks-Raptors contests for this season are over, one can definitely expect a small rivalry brewing in the near future.
