Morning briefing

Barkley saw loss coming

Charles Barkley made one of his many appearances on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” on Tuesday. This time, TNT colleagues Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson Jr. were with him.

The show tapes at 4 p.m., so it was a couple of hours before Game 6 of the NBA Finals. At the NBC Studios, Barkley was asked about that night’s game.

“Boston is going to win big,” he said. “The Lakers don’t deserve to win. They haven’t been playing with any sense of urgency. They’ve had one good quarter the whole series -- the first quarter of Game 4 -- and they lost that game.”

Barkley, who had picked the Lakers to win it all, said he had been disappointed by their play. And that continued after the taping, when the gang went to a nearby restaurant to watch the game.

“If the Lakers aren’t up by 10 points at the end of the first quarter, they’re history,” Barkley said. “They’re going to get blown out.”

When the Boston Celtics went ahead by 20 in the second quarter, Barkley picked up his white napkin and waved it, signaling the game was over.

Trivia time

How many years have Johnson, Smith and Barkley been together on TNT’s NBA studio show?

Short career

Smith, who was on two NBA championship teams with the Houston Rockets, had appeared on Leno’s show before. But it was Johnson’s first time, so Leno asked him about his background.

Johnson said he wanted to be a professional baseball player. His father had been a pitcher for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves. Johnson played college ball at Georgia.

“I was a walk-on as a freshman and a walk-off as a sophomore,” he said. “I had a career batting average of .154 with one RBI.”

Beginning of a friendship

Leno asked Smith how long he had known Barkley. Smith said they had their first significant conversation on a basketball court during warmups before a 1996 game between the Rockets and Barkley’s Phoenix Suns team. The Rockets were coming off their second consecutive championship. But Smith had been taken out of the starting lineup by coach Rudy Tomjanovich.

“Charles came over to tell me he thought I was handling it like a true professional,” Smith said. “I didn’t know if he was trying to set me up or what, but it was the greatest thing.”

Rocco rocks

U.S. Open runner-up Rocco Mediate appeared on Tuesday’s Leno show during the monologue. The audience gave Mediate a standing ovation, and he did a bit with Leno about the similarities between himself and Rocky Balboa of movie fame.

Some excerpts:

Leno: “Rocky, ‘Eye of the Tiger.’ ” Mediate: “I almost beat Tiger.”

Leno: “Rocky fought Mr. T.” Mediate: “I hit the ball off a tee.”

Leno: “Now Rocky had a cutman for when he got brutally beaten in the ring.” Mediate: “My caddie carries an umbrella and sunscreen when it gets a little bit hot out there.”

From that other show

David Letterman’s top 10 list Tuesday night included suggestions as to how the New York Mets can turn things around. They included:

“Ask Tiger Woods to switch to baseball.”

“Start fixing games like they do in the NBA.”

Trivia answer

Eight years.

And finally

While watching the Leno monologue, Smith said to Barkley: “Your guy Tiger is so famous that the guy who loses to him gets to come on Leno.”

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larry.stewart@latimes.com