{"id":731775,"date":"2026-05-11T19:42:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/731775\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T19:42:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:42:32","slug":"shaq-spars-with-charles-barkley-and-kenny-smith-knicks-going-to-the-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/731775\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaq spars with Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith: \u2018Knicks going to the finals\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will the Knicks ride the wave or get a reality check in the Eastern Conference finals?<\/p>\n

They embarrassed the 76ers<\/a> in the second round of the NBA playoffs after a sweep was solidified with a 144-114 route on Sunday, and the \u201cInside the NBA\u201d crew began discussing a potential NBA Finals appearance for Mike Brown\u2019s surging group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt gets real again in the next round for the Knicks,\u201d Kenny Smith said as the Knicks will face the Cavaliers or Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals. \u201cCleveland<\/a> and the Pistons have caused problems for the Knicks this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kenny<\/p>\n

Kenny Smith (l.) and Charles Barkley (r.) disagreed with Shaq about the Knicks\u2019 chances in the conference finals. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Smith added that the next round will look very similar to the Hawks series, which the Knicks won in six games.<\/p>\n

Shaquille O\u2019Neal, though, doesn\u2019t think anyone in the East can contend right now with the Knicks, who have won seven straight games after falling behind 2-1 against Atlanta<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve shown me they are ready,\u201d O\u2019Neal said. \u201cAnd I have to disagree with both guys, I think they\u2019ll breeze through whoever the next opponent is if they play like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Charles Barkley said the Knicks \u201chad a cakewalk\u201d to the Eastern Conference finals, calling the Hawks<\/a> \u201cnot ready for primetime\u201d while the 76ers dealt with injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever they play next is a very difficult series,\u201d Barkley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnicks going to the finals,\u201d O\u2019Neal said, interrupting Barkley.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been total annihilation in the Knicks\u2019 last seven games as they\u2019re firing on all cylinders, tying a record for 3-pointers in an NBA playoff game<\/a> on Sunday with 25.<\/p>\n

\"<aJalen Brunson<\/a> reacts after hitting a 3-pointer during the Knicks\u2019 Game 4 win over the 76ers on May 10, 2026. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n

The Knicks also have the best point differential (+194) in NBA playoff history through a team\u2019s first 10 playoff games, besting the 2017 Golden State Warriors<\/a>, who added Kevin Durant<\/a> to a team that went 73-9 in the regular season the year prior.<\/p>\n

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The wild ride will come to a halt for the next week or so as the Knicks await the winner of the Cavaliers vs. Pistons series, which Detroit<\/a> currently leads 2-1 with Game 4 in Cleveland on Monday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will the Knicks ride the wave or get a reality check in the Eastern Conference finals? They embarrassed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[679,676,7,2001,305,296,2955,164,677,288,2213,938,304,48,6,47,76,3883,2390,1302],"class_list":["post-731775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando-magic","tag-76ers","tag-atlanta","tag-basketball","tag-charles-barkley","tag-cleveland","tag-detroit","tag-eastern-conference-finals","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-hawks","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-kenny-smith","tag-kevin-durant","tag-knicks","tag-magic","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlandomagic","tag-shaq","tag-shaquille-oneal"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116557654113407384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731775","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=731775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}