“Philadelphia 76ers might lose this series, and it breaks my heart”: Charles Barkley explains why Joel Embiid may not be enough to take his Sixers past Trae Young’s Hawks
Charles Barkley announces his shocking pick to win the Atlanta Hawks vs Philadelphia 76ers series after the home team dominates game-2.
Game-2 went about as well as any fans of the Philadelphia 76ers might have hoped. The franchise jumped out to an early lead against the Atlanta Hawks, ending the first quarter with a 13-point lead.
The away team did rally back for a large part of the second, ending the half behind by just 3 points. However, the 76ers put away the game in the third quarter, and only extended their lead further in the fourth. The game ended with a comfortable 102-118 victory for Philly.
The winds are squarely in favor of the 76ers at the moment, with many even believing this series could be over very soon. However, it seems that former 76ers player Charles Barkley has other ideas. In fact, the NBA legend revealed that he disagrees completely with that notion.
Without further ado, let’s get into it.
Chuck and Shaq agree without hesitation on who is going to win this series, and it isn’t the Philadelphia 76ers
This one just wasn’t the Hawks’ night. The team’s highest scorer was Trae Young with 21 points on just 37.5% from the field. Bogdanovic only had 14 points on similar efficiency, while John Collins scored no more than 8 points in this game.
Frankly, the only player who had a good game on this team was Kevin Huerter, who scored 20 points off the bench, on an impressive 80% from the field, and 60% from beyond the arc.
This was obviously a massive reason behind why the team lost so badly in the first place. Many have given the defense of the 76ers credit for this, and it is now widely believed that the team has finally figured out how to stop this team.
Going completely against this opinion though, here is what Charles Barkley had to say.
“I do think Atlanta is going to win. Listen it breaks my heart… I want the Sixers to win. But, I’ve got to say to myself, ‘Man, I don’t know if Shake can do that three more times.’ Going into this series, I says, this ain’t got nothing to do with Joel Embiid. This is all about the Sixers perimeter players. Are they going to play enough good games? Three more games?”
Chuck further emphasized his point, with Shaq nodding profusely to every single sentence.
“And I’m looking at the Hawks. Gallinari did his thing tonight. Huerter is doing his thing. Bogdanovic, and Trae… I got more faith in those guys.”
As the show went on Shaquille O’Neal continued on this point, pointing out Ben Simmons only had 4 points in this game and continued to struggle from the free-throw line. We really hope the irony wasn’t lost on him there.
However, the analysts do have a point. The Hawks just didn’t make their shots today. They’ve shown they can cut up the Philadelphia 76ers’ defense to their liking when they did it in game-1. Now, they just have to do it again.
And with the next game in Atlanta as well, the winds could be swaying in their favor very soon.
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