Charles Barkley is one of the folks who believe that the Portland Trail Blazers have what it takes to knock off the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1-8 series in the Western Conference. None of us can tell the future, but the Blazers took the first step towards making that prediction look really good, as Portland gutted out a Game 1 win on Tuesday night, 100-93.
A fun wrinkle to this game is that Barkley thought it was must-win for the Lakers. In his eyes, Los Angeles needed to win or else they were going to get swept by a hungry Blazers squad led by a superstar in Damian Lillard. Because L.A. did indeed lose, Barkley decided to go grab a broom and celebrate before Inside the NBA provided analysis on the game. Barkley went around and swept up the set, much to the delight of Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith.
https://twitter.com/_MarcusD3_/status/1295934047999361024
Barkley went as far as to guarantee that a sweep is coming, which is quite the lofty proposition, even if the Blazers are better than most teams you’d expect to get the 8-seed. Still, if he has his way, we’re getting three more appearances out of that broom, the first of which would come at the conclusion of Game 2 on Thursday night. Chuck might need to find a different way to show off the broom, though, as that one will be broadcast by ESPN.
