Charles Barkley: ‘Orlando Magic, These Are Called The Playoffs, Y’all’

Anyone following the NBA playoffs knows that the Cleveland Cavaliers are having their way with the Orlando Magic. The Cavs lead the series, 2-0, and haven’t trailed for a single second of either game. They’ve barely been threatened.

That’s not necessarily a huge surprise. The Magic are a young team full of playoff newcomers, such as Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs … the list goes on. They’re also a young team that’s had to play each of its first two postseason games on the road. (Game 3 is Thursday night at Orlando.)

No matter, this is the NBA and there’s no mercy. You either pull it together or you get bounced. 

Former NBA great and current TNT analyst Charles Barkley sent such a message to the Magic during the postgame show with Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and host Ernie Johnson.

“Orlando Magic, these are called the playoffs, y’all,” Barkley said during highlights of the Cavs’ 96-86 Game 2 victory on Monday. “This ain’t the regular season.”

He did give the Magic some credit, saying they “battled a little bit tonight.”

But Barkley then continued his initial theme after the highlights — or in the Magic’s case, lowlights — were complete.

“The playoffs are another level of intensity,” he said. “When you have 82 (regular-season) games, you can screw around in Game 41 because you know you got Game 42 coming up.”

But not in the playoffs.

“You have to bring the intensity from Game 1,” Barkley added.

Barkley is correct. The Magic have had some moments of intensity, but mostly, the Cavs have them looking like they only hope to win. They appear as if they don’t really believe can do it.

Again, none of this is uncommon for a younger team in the playoffs. That said, the Magic have yet to play a home game, and home often does wonders for teams looking for a quick fix. Maybe that will be the case for Orlando. Right now, though, it ain’t looking good.