The Minnesota Timberwolves are on the verge of suffering a Dallas Mavericks clean sweep, but the discussion of it has brought Charles Barkley a moment of hard-hitting reality. Notably, Shaquille O’Neal and Barkley were on ‘Inside the NBA‘, specifically discussing the issue with Karl-Anthony Towns failing 3-point shooting. However, a bite back from him brought a moment of disagreement between the two stars.
While Chuckster believes KAT, taking almost 32 3-point shots and making like four of them is an issue. Shaquille O’Neal believes the bigger concern is the Wolves star not sounding upset. “The thing (clean sweep) that’s about to happen to them, I’m probably the biggest named superstar that’s been swept five times,” he said on the show. However, when Chuck tried to confirm from Shaq if he had been clean-swept five times, the former Lakers star gave a moment of reality check to Barkley. “I still got four rings, baby. How many you got?” he said.
As for KAT’s interview bite, he said, “… I’m putting, I got a laugh. I’m putting up to 1500 shots a day and shot so well all playoffs.” He further mentioned that what he is facing right now is unfortunate bounces that are just not going in. But he stated himself to be good, confidence-wise and believes he needs to keep shooting. It was this lack of seriousness and accountability that did not go well with Shaq.
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Meanwhile, Barkley first stated Towns is lying about his 1500 shots a day. But even hypothetically believing this to be true, Chuck finds his 1500 3s to be a problem. The 11x All-Star mentioned the present situation has nothing to do with him not working on his game, but with the type of shots he’s getting. “If he’s just out there shooting threes, he’s still 4 for 32,” he said. However, when it comes to replacing a player, Barkley still has another name on his mind rather than KAT.
Charles Barkley has a suggestion for the probable ‘finale’ Game 4
During further discussion on the show regarding the Wolves’ tricky situation, Barkley stated his belief that Minnesota should start with Naz Reid. And on being asked whom the 11x All-Star would take out, he replied with Rudy Gobert’s name. “That’s cuz he can’t guard anybody out there,” Chuck said.
Notably, there has been a lot of criticism against Gobert for failing to guard players like Nikola Jokic during the Nuggets’ series and Luka Doncic as of now. Meanwhile, in terms of ppg., Reid has averaged 17.3 in three matches against the Mavs, while Gobert has averaged 12.3.
And despite having issues with Towns’ 3-point shooting, Charles Barkley believes there is a solution for this. He feels KAT should not shoot threes, but go to the basket. “Go to the basket every time or post up… Make them call a foul and try to dunk the ball. Because the thing is, he’s bigger than anybody on Dallas’ team. He gonna have a size advantage,” he said.
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Though there is no surety that the Mavs will follow Chuck’s suggestions, one thing is for sure if they continue this series the same way, their Championship aspirations will be curtained soon.
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