If you tuned into tonight’s Warriors vs Rockets clash expecting a basketball game, you probably got way more than what you were looking for. High energy, intense competition, heated brawls. The game had it all. But there were times when it looked more like a WWE PLE than an NBA playoff encounter. And Hall of Famer Charles Barkley did not like what he saw. Not one bit!

Toward the closing minutes of the second quarter, Jimmy Butler and Dillon Brooks were caught exchanging some words during Tari Eason’s free throw attempts. Seconds later, the Warriors star got tangled up with Brooks, causing him to fall on the floor. With tensions rising between the two players, Jimmy hit Dillon with a hard foul just minutes later, causing the Rockets star to hit the deck hard. Again!

Although Butler got away with just a personal foul, his actions riled up Barkley. During TNT’s Inside the NBA half-time show, Chuck went on a fuming rant targeting Jimmy Butler and other Warriors stars, “This is just a bunch of stupidity. This ain’t got nothing to do with basketball. There’s not gonna be any fighting. The refs letting the game get out of control. These guys gotta settle down and play basketball. All that other stuff, nothing’s coming off it… Draymond’s being stupid. Jimmy’s out there being stupid.”

Of course, Barkley mentioned Draymond Green because he, too, got into multiple altercations during the first half. Seeing the Warriors’ inability to control their emotions, the Hall of Famer even made a bold claim, “I think the Rockets gonna win this game cause they want the game like this. Cause the Warriors, they aren’t playing basketball, they out there being stupid. And the Rockets are like, ‘Okay. They’re playing down to our level.’”

Yes, the Rockets thrive on playing physical basketball. Ime Udoka has instructed them to go hard, claiming that the officials will not call all the fouls. And the Warriors are falling right into their trap despite Shaquille O’Neal’s warning.

Warriors fail to correct first-half mistakes as Draymond Green risks ejection in crucial Game 4

Similar to Jimmy Butler, Draymond also let his emotions get the better of him, not once, but multiple times. First, he got into a physical altercation with Dillon Brooks after the Rockets star tried to grab the ball from Stephen Curry’s hands following a foul. The incident led to technical fouls for all three players. Later, in that same quarter, Green found himself in trouble once again when he collided with Tari Eason while diving for a loose ball.

Although the dive was not problematic, Draymond turning with some extra oomph and kicking Eason in the back of his head raised eyebrows. Upon review, the former DPOY was assessed with a Flagrant-1 foul, while Eason was given a tech for his reaction and escalating the altercation. Following the back-to-back incidents, Shaq issued a stern warning to Warriors stars during the half-time show.

“Well, Tari Eason when he reached, he fell, Draymond dove on top of him. Tari was probably thinking ‘you kicked me in my head.’ Draymond reacted. And I agree with Chuck. Settle down. You not gonna fight, you not gonna get suspended. Draymond needs to be careful,” he said. Despite the warning, Draymond did not learn his lesson.

Soon after the second half began, the forward picked up his fifth personal foul. Another one, and he would be tossed from the game, leaving his team high and dry.

Sure enough, this is what ‘Sir Charles’ was afraid of when he said, “You get one, okay, you can be stupid once. Okay, let’s be stupid twice. They’ve been stupid three times. Like now, the Rockets got the momentum, and now Draymond can’t play the way he normally plays because he’s very demonstrative. So now, if he’s getting demonstrative on one of the officials, he gonna be gone and Jimmy’s not playing his game either.”

A win tonight would give the Warriors a commanding 3-1 lead and likely seal the series for them. So, the players need to keep their emotions in check, understanding what’s at stake. However, they haven’t done that so far. Hopefully, the second half will be better. Do you think so?