The Charles Barkley curse continues.
Before tonight’s Play-In game matchup between the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat, Chuck bet his Inside the NBA colleague Shaquille O’Neal “a billion” dollars that the Heat would win.
“The Heat are going to beat the Hawks. Bet it, whatever you want to. A billion dollars. I don’t have to have a billion, cause I’m gonna win,” he said before the game tipped off.
Chuck was willing to bet Shaq a BILLION dollars pregame that the Heat would beat the Hawks tonight 😅 pic.twitter.com/2cXGYDl4Pp
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 12, 2023
The Heat went into the halftime break trailing by 15 points (65-50). The home team trailed by as many as 24 points and their only lead of the game came when they opened the contest with a 2-0 score.
The Heat opened up tonight’s game as a 5-point favorite over Trae Young and the visiting Hawks. Now, the Miami squad has a lot of work to do if they want to avoid another Play-In game later this week.
The winner of tonight’s game will take the No. 7 seed and face off against the No. 2 seed Boston Celtics in Round 1. The loser will play the winner of the Bulls-Raptors for the final spot in the Eastern Conference.