Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley Go at It Over Clippers’ Playoffs Path
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Charles Barkley dropped an intriguing take about the Clippers ahead of their first-round playoff matchup against the Suns on Sunday. During a segment of TNT’s halftime show, Barkley claimed that he believed Los Angeles “wanted” to face Phoenix in the playoffs.
Barkley claimed that, this year, the play-in tournament would have been the easiest path for the Clippers to the Western Conference finals, since they could have avoided the Suns, who were undefeated with Kevin Durant until Sunday’s Game 1 defeat. But Barkley argued that by starting their key players in the regular-season finale, the Clippers were sending a message that they wanted to meet the Suns in the first round.
Ernie Johnson vehemently disagreed, suggesting that no coach in their right mind would prefer to go to the play-in tournament than earn a top-six seed and an automatic ticket to the first round.
The two got into a somewhat heated debate during the segment on TNT, though both parties stuck to their guns in the argument.
“The Clippers played their starters and I said, ‘Man, they could lose this game, and be in the Lakers situation. But they really want to play the Suns. Because they played the last game of the regular season… I’d rather be in the play-in and play one bad team at home…’” said Barkley.
“You’re the only person who would want to be in the play-in,” retorted Johnson.
It’s a rare sight to see Chuck and Ernie going at it like that on the show, and even co-host Kenny Smith pointed out as much after the dust had settled.
The Clippers ended up defeating the Suns in Game 1 on Sunday, 115-110, thanks to some late heroics from Russell Westbrook, alongside 38 points from Kawhi Leonard.