http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/14246637p-15064477c.html
Long odds: 8 rarely is great
Only two NBA teams have upset a top seed
By Sam Amick -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, April 22, 2006
SAN ANTONIO - As the Kings take the AT&T Center floor this afternoon - with the San Antonio Spurs at their sides and three banners reading "League Champions" above their heads - they are already walking wonders.
It's not often that a playoff roster from one season has 10 new players added and the team returns to the postseason the next, not to mention the infrequency with which teams that sit eight games below .500 in February are still playing nearly three months later.
But while this lively lineup of Ron Artest, Mike Bibby and friends will surely give a 100-percent effort in this "can-they-shock-the-world?" first round, it is an entirely different percentage that should concern Planet Purple.
4.6.
Since the NBA went to a 16-team playoff format in 1984, only 4.6 percent of the No. 8 seeds that have tried to upset a No. 1 have been successful. Or put another way, congratulations to the 1994 Denver Nuggets - who downed top-seeded Seattle before losing in the second round. And good for those 1999 New York Knicks, who beat No. 1 Miami and survived all the way to the NBA Finals.
Otherwise? Forty-two casualties in 44 tries.
But wait. The Kings have a disclaimer.
"We don't feel like an eight seed," Kings center Brad Miller said.
Clearly, the philosophy from Kings camp is that a good team is fully capable of beating bad odds. No one outside of Ron Artest is touting the Kings as the virtual No. 1 seed (to recap, he says there will be no first-round Kings exit, and this is a team as focused on a championship as any other). But with the uniqueness of the Kings' situation - how they have seemingly wiped the pre-Artest days from their memory and focused on the second-half success - has come confidence that merely sprouts from the team's new hyperbole-prone spokesman.
"We're not going to go lay down," Kings point guard Mike Bibby said. "No one has us winning. So if you look at it that way, we have nothing to lose."
Jason Hart, who played two seasons in San Antonio on opposite sides of the Spurs' 2003 title, wouldn't put a number on the Kings' virtual seeding. The more important number, he said, is 0-0 - a series record that leaves open all possibilities.
"I think we're a dangerous team," Hart said. "I know probably (TNT's Charles) Barkley and them all say, 'It's a wrap' (on the series), but we have great individual players. And if we do well this series, something good could happen."
The Spurs are the ones whose 63 wins were just one shy of Detroit's league-best. The Kings, all things considered, were thrilled to hit the 44-win mark, the byproduct of which is less playoff expectation since they pushed No. 3 Utah to a deciding fifth game as the No. 6 seed in 1999.
"Obviously it's the playoffs and it's the Spurs, but we feel like we're going to step it up, too," Miller said. "They say it's less pressure for us, but we're expecting big things."
Coming in, the Kings were repeatedly reminded of their April 5 win in San Antonio (97-87), when both teams were on the tail end of back-to-back games. There is, they reiterated over and over, little significance beyond the dire need for a win at that time.
"It's not going to be the same team when we were in there last time," Kings coach Rick Adelman said. "I've got to think we're going to see a different Tim Duncan. I think the same thing is true about (Manu) Ginobili and (Tony) Parker. They're going to play at the top of their games."
And the Spurs expect the same in return.
"These guys are whatever you want to call them: the third-, fourth-, or fifth-best team in the West," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "With the way they've been playing here lately, they're a very, very tough draw."
About the writer: The Bee's Sam Amick can be reached at (916) 326-5582 or samick@sacbee.com.
Long odds: 8 rarely is great
Only two NBA teams have upset a top seed
By Sam Amick -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, April 22, 2006
SAN ANTONIO - As the Kings take the AT&T Center floor this afternoon - with the San Antonio Spurs at their sides and three banners reading "League Champions" above their heads - they are already walking wonders.
It's not often that a playoff roster from one season has 10 new players added and the team returns to the postseason the next, not to mention the infrequency with which teams that sit eight games below .500 in February are still playing nearly three months later.
But while this lively lineup of Ron Artest, Mike Bibby and friends will surely give a 100-percent effort in this "can-they-shock-the-world?" first round, it is an entirely different percentage that should concern Planet Purple.
4.6.
Since the NBA went to a 16-team playoff format in 1984, only 4.6 percent of the No. 8 seeds that have tried to upset a No. 1 have been successful. Or put another way, congratulations to the 1994 Denver Nuggets - who downed top-seeded Seattle before losing in the second round. And good for those 1999 New York Knicks, who beat No. 1 Miami and survived all the way to the NBA Finals.
Otherwise? Forty-two casualties in 44 tries.
But wait. The Kings have a disclaimer.
"We don't feel like an eight seed," Kings center Brad Miller said.
Clearly, the philosophy from Kings camp is that a good team is fully capable of beating bad odds. No one outside of Ron Artest is touting the Kings as the virtual No. 1 seed (to recap, he says there will be no first-round Kings exit, and this is a team as focused on a championship as any other). But with the uniqueness of the Kings' situation - how they have seemingly wiped the pre-Artest days from their memory and focused on the second-half success - has come confidence that merely sprouts from the team's new hyperbole-prone spokesman.
"We're not going to go lay down," Kings point guard Mike Bibby said. "No one has us winning. So if you look at it that way, we have nothing to lose."
Jason Hart, who played two seasons in San Antonio on opposite sides of the Spurs' 2003 title, wouldn't put a number on the Kings' virtual seeding. The more important number, he said, is 0-0 - a series record that leaves open all possibilities.
"I think we're a dangerous team," Hart said. "I know probably (TNT's Charles) Barkley and them all say, 'It's a wrap' (on the series), but we have great individual players. And if we do well this series, something good could happen."
The Spurs are the ones whose 63 wins were just one shy of Detroit's league-best. The Kings, all things considered, were thrilled to hit the 44-win mark, the byproduct of which is less playoff expectation since they pushed No. 3 Utah to a deciding fifth game as the No. 6 seed in 1999.
"Obviously it's the playoffs and it's the Spurs, but we feel like we're going to step it up, too," Miller said. "They say it's less pressure for us, but we're expecting big things."
Coming in, the Kings were repeatedly reminded of their April 5 win in San Antonio (97-87), when both teams were on the tail end of back-to-back games. There is, they reiterated over and over, little significance beyond the dire need for a win at that time.
"It's not going to be the same team when we were in there last time," Kings coach Rick Adelman said. "I've got to think we're going to see a different Tim Duncan. I think the same thing is true about (Manu) Ginobili and (Tony) Parker. They're going to play at the top of their games."
And the Spurs expect the same in return.
"These guys are whatever you want to call them: the third-, fourth-, or fifth-best team in the West," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "With the way they've been playing here lately, they're a very, very tough draw."
About the writer: The Bee's Sam Amick can be reached at (916) 326-5582 or samick@sacbee.com.