{"id":716722,"date":"2026-04-23T19:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716722\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:49:10","slug":"charles-barkley-was-in-disgust-over-pregame-nba-handshake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716722\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley Was In Disgust Over Pregame NBA Handshake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Barkley knew the Orlando Magic<\/a> were going to lose Game 2 of their playoff series with the Detroit Pistons<\/a> before the first quarter even started.<\/p>\n

After dropping Game 1 at home, Detroit bounced back with a 98-83 victory. Cade Cunningham<\/a> led the charge for the Pistons with 27 points, 11 assists and six rebounds. Veteran forward Tobias Harris<\/a> had a double-double of his own with 16 points and 11 rebounds.<\/p>\n

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Apparently, Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff delivered a great halftime message that sparked a 38-16 beatdown in the third quarter. That’s all Detroit needed to put Game 2 away.<\/p>\n

“He really got on us in the locker room,” Harris told reporters<\/a>. “[His message was] there is no more of ‘my bads.’ It’s like they’re out there hustling, getting offensive boards on us. And there’s too many of them for us [to allow] as a group. We know that’s not our standard.”<\/p>\n

\"MarMar 21, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff react to a technical foul call by referee David Guthrie (16) during the second half against the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images\u00a9 Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Magic, meanwhile, went viral for having one of the worst pregame celebrations of all time. It was so absurd that Barkley criticized Tristan da Silva<\/a> and Desmond Bane<\/a> on national television.<\/p>\n

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As ESPN was showing footage of the Magic’s pregame handshakes, you could hear Barkley saying, “Oh come on, come on, oh.”<\/p>\n

Who has the edge heading into Game 3?<\/p>\n

Despite losing Game 2 in convincing fashion, Orlando is heading into Game 3 with a ton of confidence.<\/p>\n

“We’re not backing down,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “It’s not who we are. Especially in a series like this, in a game like this, with an opponent like this; we’re not backing down. They threw everything that they had in that moment — the aggression, the physicality, all the plays in the game — that’s part of it.<\/p>\n

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The Pistons will be slight favorites on the road for Game 3. They need to win at least one of these next two games to regain home-court advantage.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by The Spun<\/a> on Apr 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley knew the Orlando Magic were going to lose Game 2 of their playoff series with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,909,2001,149,497,296,188,3860,20839,6,76,297,933,1253],"class_list":{"0":"post-716722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cade-cunningham","10":"tag-charles-barkley","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-desmond-bane","13":"tag-detroit","14":"tag-detroit-pistons","15":"tag-detroitpistons","16":"tag-jerome-miron-imagn","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-orlando-magic","19":"tag-pistons","20":"tag-tobias-harris","21":"tag-tristan-da-silva"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116455760336051838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}