Celtics
The two Hall of Famers sparred after the Celtics’ Game 1 win.
Whether fans actually consider it a good thing or not, Charles Barkley has given the Celtics his full backing to win the NBA title this season.
“The Celtics are going to win the world championship. They’ve been the best team in the NBA all year,” Barkley confidently stated on a Sunday edition of TNT’s “Inside the NBA.”
Boston rolled to a 114-94 Game 1 win over the Heat, taking a first playoff step towards the goal of an 18th championship banner.
Barkley, an NBA Hall of Famer and longtime analyst, said that he sees only one team in the league that can hang with the Celtics.
“They’re going to be tough to beat. They’ve got everything you need,” Barkley explained. “I’ll be totally, totally shocked if they don’t win the championship. I look at Denver in the [Western Conference]. That’s the one team that can compete with them.”
“If the Boston Celtics don’t win the championship, it would be a total gag job,” he added.
Granted, Barkley has a mixed track record with his predictions. He’s been called out on multiple occasions in “Inside the NBA” segments that have revisited some of his previous takes that turned out to be wrong.
One of his fellow former NBA stars provided a dissenting opinion about the Celtics.
“They shot the ball well. We know when they shoot the ball well, they’re hard to beat,” Shaquille O’Neal said. “But they have times where they don’t shoot the ball well, and they settle, and they can be beat.
“This is why I think they will not be the champions,” O’Neal said of the Celtics.
Kenny Smith concurred with Barkley about the Celtics as favorites.
“I would have to agree with Chuck,” said Smith. “[The Celtics] clearly have played the most consistent, the best [basketball], and they’re continuing to do that. What makes them difficult is the versatility.
“They play multiple ways, but the most underrated thing that they do? They defend, and they defend at a high level,” Smith added.
Barkley admitted that Boston has two flaws: Over-reliance on three-point shooting, and being “careless with the ball.”
“But those are things that are correctable,” he continued. And though he prefaced his remark by saying how much he “loves” Marcus Smart, Barkley also lauded Boston’s offseason decision to swap out the ex-Celtic for Jrue Holiday.
“You have the ball in your hands 90% of the time. Your job is like a great quarterback: Get it to your playmakers,” noted Barkley of Holiday’s role. “You’ve got [Jayson] Tatum, you’ve got [Jaylen] Brown, you’ve got [Kristaps] Porzingis, you’ve got Derrick [White]. He’s got a lot of weapons at his disposal.”
Game 2 of the Celtics-Heat series gets underway at TD Garden on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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