Kings Magic Number for Playoffs?

What Kings win total, w/ 29 games left, would slip them into the '19 playoffs as an 8th seed?

  • 20 wins (Final record 48-34)

    Votes: 3 3.6%
  • 19 wins (Final record 47-35)

    Votes: 4 4.8%
  • 18 wins (Final record 46-36)

    Votes: 14 16.9%
  • 17 wins (Final record 45-37)

    Votes: 37 44.6%
  • 16 wins (Final record 44-38)

    Votes: 12 14.5%
  • 15 wins (Final record 43-39)

    Votes: 9 10.8%
  • 14 wins (Final record 42-40)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 13 wins (Final record 41-41)

    Votes: 1 1.2%
  • Too unlikely to make the playoffs this year with 40 wins or less

    Votes: 3 3.6%

  • Total voters
    83
  • Poll closed .
#1
Could the Kings make the playoffs this year.?...its still a fair possibility in early February but the competition is fierce. The Kings as the 9th seed are currently 1.0 game behind the Clippers (who have already won the tiebreaker ). . The season is nearly 2/3rds over. Games against these 10 teams around the Kings (that follow0 are especially important: Thunder, Blazers, Rockets, Spurs, Jazz, Clippers, Lakers, Timberwolves, Mavericks, Pelicans

H-to-H Splits:

Thunder (2-1) 1 game remaining @ OKC
Blazers (1-1) 1 game remaining @ Portland
Rockets (0-1) 3 games remaining 2 @ home 1 @ Houston
Spurs (2-0) Won Season Series 1 game remaining @ San Antonio
Jazz (1-2) 1 game remaining @ Utah
Clippers (0-3) Lost season series 1 game remaining @ home
Lakers (1-2) 1 game remaining @ LA
Timberwolves (2-1) 1 game remaining @ Minneapolis
Mavericks (1-0) 2 games remaining 1 @ home 1 @ Dallas
Pelicans (1-1) 2 games remaining 1 @ home 1 @ New Orleans


Unfortunately the Kings will most likely lose the tiebreaker with Lakers by virtue of division record and already have done so with Clippers. They've won the Spurs tie-breaker. They are in good position against T-Wolves and have elevated big games against the Blazers, Thunder, and T-Wolves which will decide those tiebreakers. Warriors/Nuggets are out of the discussion as are the Grizzlies/Suns
Their most important single games I think left on the schedule:

1. @Blazers (wins tie-breaker )
2. @TWolves (wins tie-breaker)
2. @Jazz (protects 1st level tie-breaker)
4, @Thunder (wins tie-breaker)
5.@LAL (gain 1 game on close-in division rival)
6. LAC (gain 1 game on close-in division rival)

Notice 5/6 of the *most important* single games are away. 14 home games and 15 away games. Projecting with the current W/L percentages the Kings would win 9 games at home and 6 on road. That would have them at 43 wins. More important though, would the 6 road wins include a healthy amount of the important games? Its still pretty open.
 
#3
CLippers look like the team the Kings need to worry about:

Clips Remaining Schedule

Feb: Pacers, Celtics, Wolves, Suns, Grizz, Nugs, Mavs, and Jazz: The Worst the Clips go is probably 5-3
March: Kings, Knicks, Lakers, Thunder, Celtics, Blazers, Bulls, Nets, Pacers, Cavs, Knicks, Wolves,BUcks, Cavs, and Grizz. Probably Worse they can go is 10-5
April: Rockets, Lakers, Dubs, and Jazz. Let's say 2-2

That would put them at 47-25.
 
#5
CLippers look like the team the Kings need to worry about:

Clips Remaining Schedule

Feb: Pacers, Celtics, Wolves, Suns, Grizz, Nugs, Mavs, and Jazz: The Worst the Clips go is probably 5-3
March: Kings, Knicks, Lakers, Thunder, Celtics, Blazers, Bulls, Nets, Pacers, Cavs, Knicks, Wolves,BUcks, Cavs, and Grizz. Probably Worse they can go is 10-5
April: Rockets, Lakers, Dubs, and Jazz. Let's say 2-2

That would put them at 47-25.
I feel like you're overselling the Clippers in your forecast here. For your sake, I hope you aren't putting money on those games. You've got them winning every pickem game.

I think the Clippers, Jazz, Lakers, Spurs and Kings are going to be fighting for the final 3 playoff spots and 45 wins gets in.
 
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#6
CLippers look like the team the Kings need to worry about:

Clips Remaining Schedule

Feb: Pacers, Celtics, Wolves, Suns, Grizz, Nugs, Mavs, and Jazz: The Worst the Clips go is probably 5-3
March: Kings, Knicks, Lakers, Thunder, Celtics, Blazers, Bulls, Nets, Pacers, Cavs, Knicks, Wolves,BUcks, Cavs, and Grizz. Probably Worse they can go is 10-5
April: Rockets, Lakers, Dubs, and Jazz. Let's say 2-2

That would put them at 47-25.
Kings need to worry most about any team ahead or behind within striking distance of 29 games. Any of the 6 lower seed teams could falter, and lower teams could potentially go on a winning streak. I picked 45 wins but the season projection (extrapolation) falls short by just 2 wins.
 
#7
Take them one game at a time and play every game from here on out like it’s a playoff game and let the chips fall as they will.
Yes, and the away games are where the Kings must make hay. it so happens that the stronger opponents are away, so the Kings will have to earn the playoffs. on the road - a desirable secondary result. This isn't to say they will waltz through Eastern teams either.
 
#8
I think Blazers might not be too safe either. They look pretty right now, but have played 30 home games (where they are 22-8), and only 23 road games (10-13). As their road games catch up, they might suddenly look much worse. None of the other West teams have such a huge disparity in the home vs road games played.
 
#9
Wow! Clips just traded Harris. This should help us leapfrog them.

That said, Lakers trade for Reggie should help them a bit, though of course, in terms of impact, this is not in the same zip code as the Clippers trade.
 
#10
The Clippers look to be out of the race with the Harris trade.

Unless the Lakers trade for Davis this season, I could really see us finishing ahead of them. Their chemistry is really bad at the moment, and who knows if LeBron will be able to play every game this the rest of the season? Not mention we already are 1.5 games ahead of them. Our chances just got much improved!
 
#11
Probably not the correct thread for this, but some time back I had speculated that Clips will just not let Harris go, and we have no chance of getting him in FA.

And they turn around and give him up for very little value (perhaps the draft picks they are getting will be good). Way to make folks like me look like fools.
 
#13
Probably not the correct thread for this, but some time back I had speculated that Clips will just not let Harris go, and we have no chance of getting him in FA.

And they turn around and give him up for very little value (perhaps the draft picks they are getting will be good). Way to make folks like me look like fools.
They are getting PHI's pick lottery protected (3 years protected/2nd Rd if not conveyed) and MIA's unprotected 2021 pick. Not to mention the Clippers pick to Boston this year is lottery protected.

This may finally be the year we end our drought folks. Holy Moly Jim Bob Boly.
 
#17
Clippers are going to take a step back and if the Lakers don’t pull off the AD trade, the Lakers players are going to have a mutanty being in the trade offers and not being traded.

The Kings may be able to get in the playoffs with 45 or 46 wins.
 
#18
I can’t see the clippers being 8 games above .500 at any point, honestly.

Unfortunately the Lakers have Lebron, but we’ll see if the kings make any moves before tomorrow.
 
#21
Clippers may be going into tank mode. I believe their 1st round pick is top 14 protected this year, so they maybe trying to tank to keep their pick.

That leaves the Lakers and LeBron to beat out. Hopefully all their young players will fold up shop after being shopped for AD with no regard for them and the Kings can seal the 8th seed, :)
 
#22
Clippers may be going into tank mode. I believe their 1st round pick is top 14 protected this year, so they maybe trying to tank to keep their pick.

That leaves the Lakers and LeBron to beat out. Hopefully all their young players will fold up shop after being shopped for AD with no regard for them and the Kings can seal the 8th seed, :)
100% they will tank hard.

And... kind of exactly how I see it. It's going to be a good year. We'll face the W's with Cousins... and we'll have Barnes. It's going to be the most talked about series of the first round at least.
 
#23
A good day for the Kings indirectly - Clippers and T-Wolves both lose and Lakers are behind Celtics. There's also a Spurs/Blazers game that will help the Kings regardless.
 
#24
Sucks! Lakers won on a last second shot by Rondo.

If LeBron stays healthy, and with the refs help, the Lakers will be hard to keep out of playoffs.

We may want to hope for San Antonio and Utah losses, because that may be our shot at getting into the playoffs.
 
#25
Lakers will not miss playoffs with Lebron back. He carried the cavs last year (who are now perhaps the worst team in the NBA). He sure as heck isn't going to be able to -not- carry the Lakers.

We need one of the other contenders to fall.
 
#26
Lakers will not miss playoffs with Lebron back. He carried the cavs last year (who are now perhaps the worst team in the NBA). He sure as heck isn't going to be able to -not- carry the Lakers.

We need one of the other contenders to fall.
Spurs, Trailblazers or Jazz might be teams that don't necessarily falter, but don't do enough to separate from the up and coming Kings' surge.