Lakers: Shaquille O’Neal sends a serious warning about Game 1 vs. Portland

Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal sent a warning to his former team.

Shaquille O’Neal is one of the greatest players in the history of the Los Angeles Lakers and his playing days afforded him a nice post-retirement gig as an NBA analyst for the ever-so-popular NBA on TNT.

Shaq and Charles Barkley were discussing the upcoming Los Angeles Lakers-Portland Trail Blazers playoff series and the Big Diesel sent a serious warning to his former team (and former teammate, LeBron James): do not allow the Blazers to win Game 1.

Watch for yourself below.

The argument here is that the Lakers need to establish themselves as the dominant team instantly in Game 1 and avoid creeping that door open for Portland at all. As Shaq said, the Blazers look like sharks in the water with the way they are playing and when sharks smell blood, they attack.

The last time a first seed lost in the first round against an eighth seed was the 2011 San Antonio Spurs, who lost four games to two against the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies won Game 1.

The only other eighth seed to beat the first seed since the NBA Playoffs moved to a seven-game format in the first round (the first round was a five-game series up until 2003) was the 2007 Golden State Warriors, who dethroned the Dallas Mavericks four games to two.

Spoiler alert: the Golden State Warriors won Game 1.

What about Charles Barkley’s comments on the Los Angeles Lakers?

Charles Barkley has already been on the record as saying that the Lakers would lose to the Trail Blazers in the first round far before this matchup was set. In this clip, he reiterates the point that LeBron cannot have a bad night, whereas the Blazers can afford a bad night.

First of all, that simply is not true. The claim that the Blazers would be fine if Damian Lillard had an off-night is absurd. Would they be competitive? Absolutely. But it going to take that career-altering type of series from Dame to get past the most seasoned player in the league who also has another top-five player in the league alongside him.

And yes, it is true that the Lakers need a good showing from LeBron James, but when has he ever had a bad playoff showing? We would have to go back to the 2011 NBA Finals for that.

LeBron has scored fewer than 20 points in just six of his 101 playoff games since re-joining the Cleveland Cavaliers. He has scored over 40 points 16 times. To be fair to Chuck, though, LeBron is 1-5 in the games that he scored under 20 points.