Charles Barkley is back with another “guarantee.” Or rather, two this time. The NBA’s slate tonight includes three games: the 76ers vs. Knicks, the Lakers vs. Nuggets, and the Magic vs. Cleveland. Interestingly, the Lakers, 76ers, and Magic all have a 2-0 record against their respective opponents in the first round of the playoffs. However, Chuck believes that two of those three teams are going to snap the losing streak tonight.

In a recent episode of NBA on TNT, Barkley backed the Lakers and 76ers to emerge victorious tonight. “I’ll be shocked if the 76ers and the Lakers don’t win just on pride alone because it’s embarrassing to get swept, it’s humiliating. I know those people in Philly going to be going crazy and LeBron and AD I know that’s no way they going to let the Nuggets sweep them again. I’ll be shocked,” said Barkley. It will be humiliating indeed if either of them does not put the brakes on their two-game slide. In Game 2, both teams blew their lead as the opponents rallied back to turn the outcome of the game in their favor.

The Lakers held a substantial 20-point lead in the third quarter, but Nuggets Michael Malone made significant tweaks in his defense to orchestrate a turnaround. He allowed Aaron Gordon to guard Anthony Davis, disarming the Davis-LeBron pick-and-roll in the later third and early fourth quarter. On the other side of the court, the Lakers’ defense also collapsed under Nikola Jokic-Jamal Murray pick-and-roll, thanks to coach Darvin Ham’s decision to open late possessions with James guarding Murray, which led the Nuggets to score on three consecutive possessions to win the game.

Elsewhere, the 76ers blew the final-minute eight-point lead to the Knicks. The final 30 seconds saw Jalen Brunson bounce a three-pointer, cutting the 76ers lead to 101-99 with 27 seconds remaining. Then, Josh Hart stole the ball from Tyrese Maxey to get the ball back for the Knicks, but Donte DiVincenzo missed a 3-pointer. However, he got a second chance, thanks to Isaiah Hartenstein’s block, and this time DiVincenzo drilled a game-winning go-ahead three-pointer to win the game. But to be fair to the 76ers, it was also due to the poor officiating during the game.

Coming back to Chuck’s point, while it should be a good thing that he believes that the two underdogs can pull off a win tonight, it is also possibly bad news for the two fandoms.

The kiss of death

For those who are unfamiliar, Barkley’s predictions, more accurately called “guarantees” have earned the reputation as the kiss of death for the unfortunate team he backs. And for good reason, too. Since more often than not, his predictions end up falling flat. The prime example of this curse was witnessed in the 2021-22 season when the Chuck Guarantee went 10-for-25 (40 percent success rate). This season, it didn’t even take the “guarantee” two hours to jinx it. As soon as Chuck claimed that the Boston Celtics were going to lift the 2024 championship, the Celtics lost the in-season tournament quarterfinal clash to the Indiana Pacers.

However, not all hope is lost. He has had some success with his guarantees as of late. Last season, he predicted the Nuggets to beat the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, and they did, en route to their first championship. More recently, he predicted the Dallas Mavericks to win Game 2, and they clinched a hard-fought 96-93 win over the LA Clippers.

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Do you think Charles Barkley’s predictions might come true tonight? Or will the Lakers and 76ers suffer another crushing defeat? Let us know in the comments!