Charles Barkley blasts Cavs for ‘choke job’ vs. Knicks

Charles Barkley didn’t dance around it. Not even a little. But that’s the Barkley way, right?

After the Cavaliers blew a 22-point fourth-quarter lead in a stunning 115-104 overtime loss to the Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, Barkley unloaded on Cleveland during ESPN’s Inside the NBA coverage.

“Hell yeah that was a choke job,” Barkley said almost immediately after the broadcast began, via Awful Announcing. “That was a damn gag job right there.”

Hard to say he was alone in thinking it.

The Cavs led by 22 points with under eight minutes to go before completely unraveling down the stretch. New York closed regulation on a 30-8 run, forced overtime and then dominated the extra session.

According to NBA tracking data, teams trailing by at least 22 points in the fourth quarter of a playoff game had gone just 1-594 since the 1997-98 season entering Tuesday night. Now it’s 2-594.

Barkley pointed directly to Cleveland’s late-game offense as the biggest issue.

“They started taking the air out of the ball with six minutes to go like dummies,” he said.

That part definitely checked out.

The Cavs stopped moving the ball, possessions turned stagnant and everything became isolation basketball while the Knicks steadily gained confidence. 

Barkley also questioned coach Kenny Atkinson for waiting too long to call timeout during New York’s massive run. Shaquille O’Neal agreed, saying Atkinson’s timeout usage “wasn’t great.”

Meanwhile, Barkley still gave credit where it belonged.

“I give Jalen Brunson a lot of credit,” he said. “He was fantastic.”

True enough. But most of the postgame conversation centered around the Cavs’ collapse, not Brunson’s brilliance.

That’s not likely to change until Game 2 gives the Cavs a chance to change the narrative. Tipoff is Thursday at 8 p.m. EST.