Heat: Charles Barkley prepared to bet on Boston Game 5 win
The Boston Celtics saved their season Tuesday night, finally getting on the board in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals while sending the series back to Boston for Game 5. It’s there that Inside the NBA analyst Charles Barkley thinks that the outlook of this Conference Finals series could quickly shift on a dime if the Miami Heat aren’t careful.
In his post-game analysis of the Celtics’ 116-99 win, Barkley professed that a loud TD Garden would propel Boston to a blowout victory at home Thursday, putting the onus/pressure back on the Heat for Game 6.
When pressed about noting that the Celtics will have a “cakewalk,” Barkley said he couldn’t bet some money on such an outcome fast enough.
Not that overconfidence is out of the norm for someone like Barkley, but phew, what a hot take at first glance. With how awful they looked earlier in the series, have the Celtics really earned the benefit of the doubt after winning just one (1!) game? I personally wouldn’t go that far.
At the very least, oddsmakers with FanDuel seem to agree with Barkley generally that the Celtics will force a Game 6. I just don’t know about a blowout per se.
As for the Celtics’ chances to actually come back from 0-3 and win the series overall, the Heat are still favored to win the East at -285.
I don’t anticipate this meaningfully changing in the coming days because this series should still be over — in Miami’s favor — soon enough. Sorry, Charles!
