On a guest appearance with ESPN’s First Take, TNT NBA analyst Charles Barkley wrote off the Celtics’ chances at making the finals.
When asked about the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers, Barkley loved their moves at the trade deadline and stated that Cleveland was right back at the top.
“They’re the team to beat. There’s only two legitimate teams in the East: them and the Toronto Raptors,” Barkley said.
This take comes at a time where the Celtics are admittedly playing their worst basketball of the season. Boston has lost their last three games, and four of the last five. In Cleveland’s first game with their reconstructed team, they blew out Boston by a final score of 121-99.
This was the highest scoring output allowed by Boston’s normally stingy defense, which was atop the league until recently. The unwanted record was replaced just three days later in their next game against the Los Angeles Clippers, who dropped 129.
Earlier in the month, the Toronto Raptors, who are now the top seed in the East, beat the Celtics by 20. With all this said, it seems like Barkley’s statements are more truth than a diss.
Here’s the issue: everything from injuries to a new addition to young studs finally slowing their play has helped Boston fall and become overlooked as a legitimate threat to come out of the Eastern Conference.
Someone that makes their living off analyzing professional basketball should understand that these factors can and will lead to a team playing poorly, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t get back to the team we all saw earlier in the season.
Furthermore, Barkley has been proven wrong time and time again when attempting to blow off the Celtics. After Gordon Hayward’s injury just five minutes into the season opener, Barkley predicted that Boston’s season was over.
After dropping the first two affairs, they went on to win 16 consecutive games and became one of the hottest teams in basketball. During this streak, Barkley also guaranteed the streak would end against the Golden State Warriors.
“The Celtics aren’t going to beat the Warriors tonight. They’re not going to hold the Warriors to 94 points I promise you that.”
Boston went on to win 92-88 by shutting down Klay Thompson and Steph Curry.
Charles Barkley seems to discredit Boston over and over no matter how they are playing. In terms of his latest prediction, we will have to sit and wait for the playoffs to see whether or not he is wrong again.
