Before the final buzzer sounded, Charles Barkley wasted no time criticizing the Cavaliers during their season-ending defeat, which secured the Knicks’ spot in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.
The Cavaliers kicked off Monday’s elimination match with promise, but ultimately fell to the Knicks’ dominance, resulting in a 130-93 blowout at Rocket Arena.
The game seemed decided even before halftime, prompting Barkley to criticize Cleveland’s apparent lack of effort.
“Kids at home, if you want to understand the meaning of the word ‘quit’: to give up. The verb form: CA-VA-LI-ERS,” he remarked during the halftime segment on “Inside the NBA.” “This is what you see… They were down 29. This is just effort here. This is just effort.”
To emphasize his point, Barkley had the producers showcase clips illustrating the Cavaliers’ lackluster performance.
“How do you give up 23 fastbreak points in a half?” Barkley asked. “Players aren’t going to say they quit, but you know what shows? Their actions.
“Lisa [Salters] and Malika [Andrews] were talking about [Cavs players] saying they believe. Well, I believed they were going to get their ass whooped and that’s what’s going to happen.”
The “Inside the NBA” crew didn’t stop there either.
After the loss, Kenny Smith said that he believed the Cavaliers “took a step backwards because it showed what you’re vulnerable to, to everyone else in the Eastern Conference.”
Smith added that the Cavaliers needed to change their offensive identity for Cleveland to take that step.
The comment was in response to comments from Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, who has taken plenty of criticism this series for not using timeouts in Game 1 as the Knicks mounted a historic comeback, and comments about how the Cavaliers were winning games in an analytical sense.