‘Kicked their ass’: Barkley gives Warriors basically no shot in Game 7
Warriors #Warriors
Last time TNT analyst Charles Barkley guaranteed a Kings blowout victory, the Warriors responded by taking a 3-2 series lead against Sacramento with an emphatic 123-116 road win. So maybe it was a good omen for Golden State that on Saturday night, the NBA Hall of Famer was once again riding with the Kings.
“Sacramento’s got the best team. They’re going to win,” Barkley said during TNT’s “Inside the NBA.”
He then supported his claim with some truly impressive mental gymnastics.
“If Sacramento just plays well, they’re a better team. They’ve got more weapons,” he said. “You see these older teams, they play one good game, one bad game.”
Barkley conveniently left out the part where the Warriors — the eighth oldest team in the NBA with an average age of 27.3 — won three straight games in seven days before Sacramento (the 14th youngest team in the NBA with an average age of 26.3) won Game 6 in San Francisco.
“Sometimes they look bad when they turn the ball over and don’t make shots,” Barkley said of the Kings. “But the rest of the time, they’ve got a better team than the Warriors.”
Hard to argue with that.
Both of Barkley’s studio mates, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, weren’t so sure about the Round Mound of Rebound’s assertions.
“I don’t know that they’ve got the better team,” Smith interjected.
“Everybody in the world picked them to lose that game, walking around talking about, ‘Oh, the Warriors got championship DNA. They’re going back to Chase Center.’ Yep, yep,” Barkley said. “We watched TV all day. ‘The Warriors, they’re going to close them out tonight.’ Them boys came out and kicked their ass because they’re younger, they’re more athletic, they’ve got more options.”
“You know the series is 3-3?” Smith asked.
“I know. Just for the record, I did pick the Kings. I said the Kings in seven, and they’re going to win in seven,” Barkley replied.
He then went even further all-in on the Kings, saying they will reach the conference finals. “They’re going to beat the Lakers,” he promised.
Host Ernie Johnson then reminded Barkley that they’d first need to actually win Game 7. Tipoff Sunday in Sacramento is set for 12:30 p.m.