“Charles Barkley guaranteed a Bucks win tonight!”: Hawks mascot came out to celebrate with Inside the NBA crew after Chuck picked Giannis over Kevin Durant tonight

Charles Barkley and the TNT crew added another memorable moment to the ‘GUARANTEE’ reels ahead of Bucks vs Nets this evening.

Most of the world didn’t know that James Harden was going to get injured early in the first quarter today. The Nets have held up well after his hamstring injury, having still held the lead for the entirety of the game.

They came into the game as heavy betting favorites in their first home game of the series. But Charles Barkley, as usual, didn’t go the beaten route with his betting strategy. Giannis picked the Bucks on today’s spread as TNT began advertising this game’s FanDuel bets:

“I’m taking the Milwaukee Bucks +3.5.”

The Atlanta Hawks’ mascot in the studio seemed to be really, really overjoyed at these actions by Chuck. He rushed onto the dais and began hilariously cawing at Chuck and biting at his head with his huge beak. It’s really live comedy at this point.

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Is Charles Barkley winning his bet judging from the Bucks’ current play?

The Milwaukee Bucks trailed the Brooklyn Nets in Game 1 82-93 at the time of writing this article. This was late in the 3rd quarter as coach Bud challenged a foul called on Brook Lopez late in that period.

An 11-point lead headed into the final period is great news for any team in that position. The Nets will undoubtedly be feeling themselves, even though Kevin Durant will have to toe the line for a bit with his 4 fouls in the game.

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But Chuck didn’t bet on the Bucks outright, he bet on them being within 3 points of the Nets’ total on the night. So he’s much more in contention for this pick tonight than the outright W.