Culture / Sporting Life

Rockets Make Charles Barkley Look Ridiculous With Game 1 Blowout, Force Even Their National Bully to Say Nice Things About Harden, D’Antoni

By Changing Barkley's Mind, the Rockets Prove There Are Bubble Miracles

BY // 08.18.20

There is good. And then, there’s good enough to shut up Charles Barkley. Or at least make him reverse course and look like a fool.

The Houston Rockets were changing Charles Barkley’s mind good in a 123-108 blowout of Oklahoma City in Game 1 of their NBA bubble playoffs experience. Even Barkley, arguably the Rockets’ fiercest and most resolute national critic, could not help but praise the franchise he loves to hate. After James Harden and Mike D’Antoni’s suddenly deep bench make almost every one of Barkley’s pregame predictions look more foolish than the college kids returning to campuses and immediately going bar hopping.

Barkley bets Shaq $500,000 on air that the Thunder will beat the Rockets in Game 1 of the first round series. The Thunder never even came close to challenging Houston in the second half.

Barkley predicts that hulking Thunder center Steven Adams will rack up 20 points and 20 rebounds against the small ball Rockets. Adams finishes with 17 and 12, but he never comes close to ever grabbing control of the game.

Instead, D’Antoni turns the well-traveled Jeff Green into a point-center whose decision making helps keep Oklahoma City several steps behind all game. “He opens so many other possibilities,” D’Antoni says of Green in his postgame Zoom press conference.

Instead, Rockets’ friend-turned-enemy Chris Paul (the future Hall of Famer Harden pushed out of Houston) look every bit of his 35 years.

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Instead, these mad experiment Rockets look like arguably the most prepared bubble team of all (with apologies to the Raptors). The first two days of these Disney bubble playoffs have seen the Eastern Conference power Milwaukee Bucks fall to a hobbled, eight seed Orlando Magic team, the West’s No.1 seed Lakers  collapse down the stretch and lose to 8th seed, play-in Portland and the Clippers need a dubious Kristap Porzingis ejection to survive Luka Donic and the seventh seed Dallas Mavericks.

But the Rockets cruise. Harden does not need to do anything extraordinary (37 points is pretty ordinary by his crazy scoring standards). Houston gets 42 points from its bench, with 22 (along with six rebounds and four assists) coming from Green and another 14 from Ben McLemore. That is two oft-dismissed and discounted players who D’Antoni has turned into impact players.

No wonder why even Barkley is losing his usual Rockets’ vitriol.

“James Harden is the best 1-on-1 player I’ve ever seen in my life,” Charles Barkley says on TNT’s postgame show.

Charles Barkley
Charles Barkley

It’s impossible for even Barkley to criticize the Rockets after this playoff start. The fourth largest city in the country somehow does not have a single reporter in the bubble in Orlando, but the way the Rockets are coming together is clear for anyone watching the NBA’s slickly produced bubble telecasts (virtual fans and all) to see. Russell Westbrook (the Rockets’ Paul replacement) is hobbled by a quad injury and may miss this entire series.

Still, the Rockets look like a serious threat in these restart playoffs. D’Antoni’s team throttles the Thunder with defense as much as offense on this Tuesday night. Stan Van Gundy spends much of the TNT telecast, praising that switching Rockets D.

When Harden sits down in the first half, the Rockets rip off a 18-5 run, rolling without a single star on the floor. This isn’t a playoff opener as much as it’s a revelation.

“We have to be able to share the ball,” Green says in his own postgame Zoom after he hits 8 of his 12 shots and keeps the ball moving — and the Thunder flummoxed. About the only Houston mistake Green makes is wearing a Washington Nationals hat in his postgame interview session, but the DC area native who played his college ball at Georgetown can probably be forgiven for that.

Especially after a game like this, where the vet keeps everything flowing. Green’s played for 10 different teams in something of a long, vagabond NBA career, but few have taken full advantage of his court vision quite like this.

“Jeff Green to me was terrific tonight,” Barkley says on TNT.

“It’s going to be tough for teams to match up with us,” Green says.

Sharing may be caring, but shutting Charles Barkley up is its own sweet reward. And you didn’t think the NBA Disney bubble could change the world?

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