The Los Angeles Lakers are looking for their 5th straight win, the first time since November. Despite having 1 loss in the last 8, this streak is not enough for the Purple and Gold franchise to turn hater Charles Barkley into a fan.

“My worst nightmare is the Lakers winning tonight. And I have to listen to all the crap on Monday on all the talk shows about how the Lakers are contenders,” said Barkley before the game on Inside the NBA. Even co-hosts Shaquille O’Neal’s question of the Lakers securing a home court advantage and Kenny Smith’s argument of the franchise being a third seed in the West received a “No” from Charles Barkley.

“Please, please don’t let them win. I’m going to be nail-biting all night tonight. They’re going to be talking about it all day Monday. Thank God I’ll be in Dayton,” Chuck concluded.

Heading into the game, the Lakers are out in front of Denver. The Lakers are the West’s fourth seed with a 41-25 record. They have a 0.5-game lead over the Nuggets, who are 41-26 on the year. The winner of this game gets the tiebreaker advantage for the playoffs. Chuck knows a win will increase the contender conversation, which he isn’t a fan of.

Even at halftime, with the Nuggets being down 50-61, Charles Barkley predicted that Denver would come back to win. “The Lakers are going to lose this game tonight, GUARANTEE! This little pretty girl wearing a LeBron jersey is going to be crying in 2 hours”. It’s now new for the NBA icon and Hall of Famer to rip into the Lakers.

“I’ve been saying it for months. The Lakers are not a good team. And I just think it’s funny how the media has turned on Luka; everything’s Luka’s fault now. I find that hilarious. And I guess we’re contractually obligated to talk about them every day like they do on our network.” This was last week’s assessment, and at the time, the Lakers were on a three-game losing streak.

The Los Angeles Lakers are 16-20 against teams that have a record of .500 or better. This comes after JJ Redick’s side beat the Knicks and the Timberwolves in back-to-back games. That’s why, for weeks, Chuck has pointed out that the Lakers often lack athleticism and aren’t good enough defensively to be called contenders.

One of the Lakers’ Big 3 defended against Charles Barkley’s opinion

Chuck has been very consistent in his statements against the Lakers. The teams from three to six all have 41 wins this season so far, and the Suns, on the 7th, have 39 so far. So, there is not much to differentiate those teams, and Barkley opined that the Lakers are not built to beat Denver, Houston, San Antonio, or OKC. He even called them mediocre. This was three weeks ago on the same broadcast when Austin Reaves was listening.

Charles Barkley bluntly stated, “I know the guys going to go on TV because, you know, they throw them stats out there…When those three guys play together, they still ain’t going to [contend].” Moments later, host Ernie Johnson asked Reaves if he had heard the comments.

AR heard it all, but remained calm and composed in his reaction. “Yeah, I heard a little bit. Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion,” he said calmly. It’s clear that the Lakers’ stars are not siding with Chuck’s opinions. With 16 games remaining, wins over more than .500 teams will definitely inspire more confidence.