The Golden State Warriors nearly evened up their series against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 4, before ultimately losing 104-101 to fall behind 3-1.
While some may be holding out hope for a stunning comeback, Charles Barkley says the Warriors are done.
“They’re cooked. This series is over. Whether in five or six, it’s over,” Barkley said on Inside the NBA. “I think the Lakers did a fabulous job of making Klay (Thompson) and Steph (Curry) work, they’re attacking them. Because they know that’s the two guys they got to worry about. They attacked them every single time in the half-court. Because the Warriors are switching everything. I personally thought Klay and Steph got tired in the game. Because I love the way the Lakers did it like, ‘We’re not let those guys gonna run up and down the court and just shoot.’ They run a pick-and-roll every time. They’re trying to guard LeBron (James); he’s going at Klay, he’s going at Steph and when the game was on the line, a guy named Lonnie Walker had his way… They are doing a fabulous job of attacking Klay and Steph and their shooting percentages show that.”
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The Lakers have gone after the Splash Brothers and as Barkley says, their shooting percentages have dipped. Stephen Curry is averaging 25.3 PPG in this series but is shooting just 43.7% from the field and 38.1% from beyond the arc. Klay Thompson, meanwhile, is averaging 19.8 PPG and is shooting a poor 41.2% from the field although he is at 44.4% from beyond the arc.
Curry’s conditioning is top-notch but perhaps the Lakers repeatedly going at him just wears him down as the game goes on. In Game 4, he had 17 points on 6-11 shooting at half-time but he went 6-19 in the second half and was gassed by the end of the game. Curry’s ineffectiveness meant the Lakers dominated the fourth quarter, winning it 27-17. In a critical sequence in the last minute of the contest, Anthony Davis even clamped down on Steph and forced two missed shots, which helped the Lakers stay ahead. As for Klay, he only 9 points in this game and was a woeful 3-11 from the field.
Can The Warriors Prove Charles Barkley Wrong?
This is hardly the first time that Barkley has predicted the Warriors’ demise, as he felt they were going to be knocked out by the Sacramento Kings after losing Game 6. He has also been one of their biggest doubters over the years and the way things are looking right now, it seems he will be proven right this time.
You fear the Warriors have now blown their chance at winning this series after losing Game 4. Sure, they overturned a 3-1 deficit in 2016 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but they had a much better team back then. That squad won 73 games in the regular season while this one just about got to 44. They could have perhaps won two out of three against the Lakers, but this team just doesn’t look good enough to rattle off three wins in a row.
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