Charles Barkley believes how a LeBron James-led Los Angeles Lakers won’t be able to defeat Portland and Denver in the playoffs.
Los Angeles Lakers, entering the 2020-2021 season, were looking to be one of the strongest teams. With the lead ership of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the team were strong contenders to win their second-consecutive title.
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The 17-time NBA winners also added stars like Montrezl Harrell, Dennis Schroder and Marc Gasol to strengthen their bench and add depth to it.
However, LAL has been riddled with injuries throughout the season. Even their superstars LBJ and AD had to be sidelined for quite some matches with injuries. The burden on not playing without their leaders fell on the rest of the Lakers. They clearly have been struggling over the past few weeks.
Former NBA superstar Charles Barkley is a firm believer that the Lakers won’t win the title this season. Despite the fact that AD has returned to action and Bron getting closer to a return, Barkley stated how LAL couldn’t get past the Nuggets and Blazers in the playoffs.
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“I think Utah can win the championship this year”: Charles Barkley
As you can see, Chuck doubled down on the $100k bet he made about the Blazers reaching the NBA Finals this year. This is in line with his past bets, backing Portland in the playoffs.
Traditionally, this strategy has backfired for the Sixers legend. But you have to admire his ability to continuously get it wrong unabashedly.
According to Barkley, Utah Jazz has been constantly overlooked as being serious competition for the title. He further went on to say that Jazz is his favorites to dethrone the Lakers and win the title.
“I think the Utah Jazz can win the championship. The whole thing. They have the coach of the year, they have two All-Stars, the Sixth Man of the Year.”
Utah Jazz does deserve their credits. Despite all the criticism their leaders received, they have the best record in the whole league, proving their doubters wrong. They even have Jordan Clarkson providing the team with the energy of the bench.
Even though not many analysts or fans have the Jazz winning the whole thing, they can be a threat to any strong contender on any given night. Currently, they have a league-best 44-15 record. With only 13 games left in their regular season, they would want to finish strong entering the playoffs as the number one seed.
