It seems that Damian Lillard is not the only person. crazy enough to think who believes the Portland Trail Blazers could beat the Lakers in the first round of the NBA playoffs, but at least he has the excuse of being on the damn team. Of course you have to believe they have a chance! Charles Barkley has no such justification, but that did not stop him from firing the hot cannon anyway.
NBA legend and outspoken commentator yelled out what can only be described as “The Charles Barkley Golf Swing” of basketball predictions in the latest episode of “Inside the NBA” on Thursday night:
“I will tell you this: if the Portland Trail Blazers make the playoffs, they will beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round.”
They tell me that apparently I am no It allowed me to fill the rest of this post with clown emojis, so I guess I have to put together some ideas on this.
The Blazers were 29-37 when the season stopped, leaving them 3.5 games behind Memphis Grizzlies for the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference. When the league returns later this month, they’ll try to beat the New Orleans Pelicans for a chance to take on the Grizzlies in a play-in game for the final seed (the ninth seed only has to reach four games. the eighth seed to qualify for the game play). If they can do that and win that game, they will get the right be destroyed by face the Lakers in the first round.
Would the Blazers have a chance in such a showdown? Not.
Than? Did you expect more? Seriously? Okay, fiiiiine.
I suppose technically Anything is possible in this kind of restart, but even with the Lakers losing to Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley, the Blazers haven’t exactly done this year making it look like they could win four of seven games against the Lakers. They could take one, or maybe even two, and make it a mildly interesting series if they catch Los Angeles on a particular streak of cold, but it’s a little hard to believe that it would be a huge threat to get a really unpredictable luck.
Now, Barkley has been promoting the Blazers for a while, so maybe this is one of those teams that he really likes irrationally. Like the way he used to face the Warriors all the time because he hates all three. Or maybe all the evidence and conventional wisdom are wrong. But for now, it’s really hard to take predictions like this seriously, unless the Lakers suffer a massive misfortune of serious injury or something equally unpredictable. As long as they have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, that should be enough to beat the Blazers pretty easily.
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