OAKLAND — Charles Barkley should no longer be considered a basketball analyst. He’s an entertainer with a microphone that has the privilege of a platform because his fabrications have shock value. Basketball fans love him for his takes, however wrong they may be. Unfortunately, he continues to spread misinformation about the top seed in the Western Conference.
“This is going to be a shootout, neither one of these teams is good defensively,” Barkley repeated in different iterations three times during his halftime analysis Wednesday, an eventual Warriors 29-point win over the Blazers in Game 2 of the first round.
Moments after Barkley criticized the Warriors for not being good enough defensively — they finished second in the NBA in defensive efficiency this season — Golden State allowed just 12 third quarter points and 35 total in a second half romping. Portland was struggling to get shots off, let alone score.
“I felt like we were both surrounded by two or three guys each time we got around our defender,” Damian Lillard described postgame. He scored just 12 points.
Listen, we’re all wrong from time-to-time with our analysis. I incorrectly predicted Andrew Bogut would give Cleveland ‘Strength in Numbers’ over Golden State. Whoops. But there’s a major difference in projecting an outcome with an educated guess and being plain ignorant of the facts.
Charles, the Warriors were first in the NBA in blocks, steals, field goal percentage allowed and turnovers forced during the 2016-17 regular season. Look at some numbers before you keep making foolish claims. If they haven’t realized it already, TNT viewers should know you aren’t watching many regular season games. At all. It’s gibberish coming out of your mouth this point about the Warriors. The truth is completed slanted.
Barkley’s vendetta against Golden State originally started when he clamored a a jump-shooting team couldn’t win a championship. Then it was they played girly basketball. Earlier in the year he listed Steph Curry as the seventh best player in the NBA. He called Kevin Durant a cheater for wanting to join forces with the Oakland hoopers. Now, they don’t play good defensively. Stop talking, Charles. It doesn’t make any sense at all.
“People want to talk about the shooting in the backcourt and all that stuff, but this has been a great defensive team for a while” Steve Kerr said postgame, completely unaware of Barkley’s comments. “Since before I got here they were a great defensive team, which has really been the hallmark of this club for the last five years.
“You’ve got to defend, especially in the playoffs. You’ve got to be able to defend because you’re constantly running into great players. So our guys understand that’s the name of the game.”
Wednesday wasn’t a game where Curry or Klay Thompson took over — not even close. Neither topped 20 points. No, Charles, it was a superb defensive outing from the Warriors — the Blazers were admittedly off. Lillard’s tough night was mirrored by his teammate C.J. McCollum, who had just 11. Golden State’s defense wasn’t fully responsible for their lowly numbers, but it obviously had an impact.
If anything, Charles, the Warriors might be better defensively now than they have at any time during the Steve Kerr era. JaVale McGee has a ton to do with that. His defense development throughout the season has been remarkable. It’s not just the blocked shots and the rim protection. McGee has taken lessons from assistant coach Ron Adams to heart about defending the pick-and-roll and not biting on pump fakes on the top of the key. McGee also allows Draymond Green to freelance more on defense, making him even more of a lethal weapon.
“With him being live right at the rim for us, it was kind of like a bail out,” Draymond said of McGee. “You get in trouble, and he goes to the rim and goes to get it. It was more than that. It was offensive rebounds. It was a great post move. It was the blocks. It was the defense and the pick-and-roll coverage. I mean, he was amazing all over the court for us tonight. It gave us a huge lift off the bench.”
Charles, the Warriors can play poorly from time-to-time on defense. They are not bad defensively. But go ahead, please keep spewing this nonsense. Providing correct, sound analysis obviously isn’t the goal of your broadcast. Might as well keep on hating.