Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel reporting the opinions of a couple leading TNT NBA analysts:
TNT’s always-entertaining NBA studio team held their always-entertaining pre-All-Star conference call Thursday. It included disagreement between Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal regarding the Heat’s playoff prospects.
“Indiana is the best team in the NBA,” Barkley said. “If they can get a healthy and have a motivated Andrew Bynum, they are going to be very difficult to beat. The wear and tear is starting to take a toll on the Miami Heat and Dwyane [Wade] and LeBron [James]. But it’s still going to be tough to beat LeBron four times in a week.”
O’Neal agreed on that last point.
“Miami has more experience and nobody has beaten them [in the Eastern Conference],” he said. “Indiana has a better record, but just because you have homecourt advantage doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to win. I would lean towards a healthy, more experienced Miami Heat.”
