The 2024 Playoff Chase Thread

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
Whoa! I think we’ll have to somehow split these games with the Knicks and Celtics coming up, in order to pull off the 6th seed or higher. If our bench can continue to step up and the defense stays together, anything can happen.
The Celtics/Thunder game tomorrow suddenly becomes very interesting for Kings fans: Boston has already clinched the Number One seed in the east, and can clinch homecourt throughout the playoffs with a win over OKC. Be nice if the Kings can roll into Beantown with Mazzula giving them boys the night off.
 
The Clippers looked outta sorts and the Kings took advantage......a good win vs taeam without their top player. Lyles and Mitchell with a combine 29 pts.....that's probably the highest combined point total from the pair all year. With Rockets losing again, the Kings should be very close to locked for at least the Play-ins. It seems fairly possible with records mashed in together for a 3-way tie. Kings dont wanna 3-way tie with Mavs and Pelicans. Thye may be able to nip the Mavs on a 2-way tie based conference record., but the Mavs have a much easier last 3 games. Phoenix game presents a tiebreaker oppurtunity if the Kings are very close to the Suns at the 2nd to the last game - that may be for play-in or play-off game., but the Pelicans tiebreaker may relegate Kings to play-in as they have to finish a game ahead of them starting a game back......Clippers play the Suns twice, and can help keep the Suns away,. but it may only mean home court play-in.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
The Magic had a 16 point lead midway through the 4th and let it dwindle to 6 pts but it looks like they're going to pull out the win over the Pelicans. That brings us to within 1/2 game of the 6 seed, a deficit which we can eliminate with a win over New Orleans next week. The big thing though is that none of that matters if we don't win all or nearly all of our remaining games including tomorrow night and Friday night in New York / Boston.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Ok, so the Cavs are out. We just have to hope we beat them for the tiebreaker and the Wolves take care of business twice. Still haven't decided who we should be rooting for with Suns vs Pelicans.
It honestly depends on if the Pels lose to the Spurs or not, which given how ridiculous Wemby has been of late is not entirely out of the question
 
It honestly depends on if the Pels lose to the Spurs or not, which given how ridiculous Wemby has been of late is not entirely out of the question
Yeh but the Spurs don’t have anyone left besides Wemby with the two starters shut down for the year. If the Pels lose that game they are in trouble.

I could see the Pels finishing 3-3 if things don’t go their way but it looks like the Suns are poised to rise.

Waterbug and long boards tomorrow and then the Celtics the next night for us? Brutal. If we can go 5-2 we will give ourselves a chance but dang is that a big ask.
 
Tmrw is a MUST win, especially with Boston on the horizon
They all are, but really the Pelicans and Suns are the biggest remaining. Likely the Kings will have to go at least 5-2 to have a decent shot at 6th place including wins vs both Pelicans and Suns.. 4-3 won't get it done - maybe for 7th. No help from the Cavs vs Suns. tonight

The Warriors don't have much to play for to improve at all - so unfortunately they may not help vs Pelicans. The Suns/Pelicans game is a wiin for the Kings . Pelicans last game vs Lakers, similar to Warriors vs Pelicans, little to play for- no help there..

Pretty much if the Kings lose either to the Pelicans or Suns its play in or certainly if losing both unless they win all other 5 games.
 
They all are, but really the Pelicans and Suns are the biggest remaining. Likely the Kings will have to go at least 5-2 to have a decent shot at 6th place including wins vs both Pelicans and Suns.. 4-3 won't get it done - maybe for 7th. No help from the Cavs vs Suns. tonight

The Warriors don't have much to play for to improve at all - so unfortunately they may not help vs Pelicans. The Suns/Pelicans game is a wiin for the Kings . Pelicans last game vs Lakers, similar to Warriors vs Pelicans, little to play for- no help there..

Pretty much if the Kings lose either to the Pelicans or Suns its play in or certainly if losing both unless they win all other 5 games.
If Houston beats the Warriors tonight it could alert the Warriors to win more remaining matches. Also the Lakers due to the Suns tough schedule will fight to overtake them so to get the home advantage in the play in or exhaust their chances for the 6th place if Kings won't get so many wins. It will be hard to finish 6th playing 3 matches as clear underdogs (@NY @BOS, back to back those two as well and @OKC) plus the two must win duels vs Pels and Suns. And then we have the two "easy" matches @BRO and vs POR that are the ones we tend not to win so easily throughout the season.
 
If Houston beats the Warriors tonight it could alert the Warriors to win more remaining matches. Also the Lakers due to the Suns tough schedule will fight to overtake them so to get the home advantage in the play in or exhaust their chances for the 6th place if Kings won't get so many wins. It will be hard to finish 6th playing 3 matches as clear underdogs (@NY @BOS, back to back those two as well and @OKC) plus the two must win duels vs Pels and Suns. And then we have the two "easy" matches @BRO and vs POR that are the ones we tend not to win so easily throughout the season.
Yeah no idea what the outcome will be - none....anything from 5th to 10th with this team. Watch them beat the Knicks and Celtics then lose to the Nets...... then have 6th spot availalbe but lose it to the Blazers., or blow out the Pelicans only to be blown out by the Suns .....would fit this season's schizophrenia
 
5 more wins will be needed to get the 6th ( beating Suns and Pels included).If they go 4 and 3 it should be enough to hold of Lakers for the home court advantage in the play in (Lakers would have to go undefeated to overtake Kings in that scenario).Pels are kind of the wild card here, they have problems scoring and the coach don't seem to be able to figure out if he wants to play small or big.
 
Pels are in trouble now. They had very nice mid-season, but injuries are their Achilles heel.
Kings have everything in their own hands. Sure, Huerter is out, Monk has a bad knee, though most of the teams are pretty banged up by now. That's why I HATE play-in garbage. A solid team can have a steady 50-60 games into the season, but an injury or couple suddenly will lead for them to drop in the standings. While some mediocre team, after the trade or finally figuring their game, can get hot late, sneak into the 10th place and knock out much better teams just due the good timing. Play-in made a complete sense in the covid-shortened season, now it's a pure garbage.
Why do Kings have to worry about being 7th-8th seed and not making to the real season? Real season I mean real post-season, play-offs? In such strong conference like the West is this year, from the start of the season teams have to focus about getting into top 6 and play every game like their lives depend on it.
Euroleague has 18 teams, 8 make into play-offs. Last season 11 teams had a record of 50% or more, but 9-11 places were terminated at the end of the regular season.
Glorified title contenders Bucks, second best in the East have 29 losses and a losing road record of 18-20. I wonder, what is the total top 11 teams in the West record against top 11 teams in the East?
Ufff... I don't expect NBA to get back to their senses and return to the prior format. I suffered like 6-8 minutes listening to the "Undisputed". To simplify - nobody cares about Kings. It's a small market team with no global mega dupa super stars. It's much more fun for them to blabber about antiques like LBJ or depleted and declining Warriors. "We are not going to watch Kings play... cause Sabonis is an over achieving role player". Well, Kings fans all over the world watch every their game (when they can).
Makes no sense to cry about the situation right now. Kings easily could be among top 4 in the West if not their consistent inconsistency. I just hope that 2 losses to Mavs at home was like a cold shower to them and we will play last 7 games of the regular season like it's a game 7 in a Conference final ;)
Kings have plenty of hidden potential, backed by the real talent. These last 7 games will let us know more about their "inner" strength.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
Pels are in trouble now. They had very nice mid-season, but injuries are their Achilles heel.
Kings have everything in their own hands. Sure, Huerter is out, Monk has a bad knee, though most of the teams are pretty banged up by now. That's why I HATE play-in garbage. A solid team can have a steady 50-60 games into the season, but an injury or couple suddenly will lead for them to drop in the standings. While some mediocre team, after the trade or finally figuring their game, can get hot late, sneak into the 10th place and knock out much better teams just due the good timing. Play-in made a complete sense in the covid-shortened season, now it's a pure garbage.
Why do Kings have to worry about being 7th-8th seed and not making to the real season? Real season I mean real post-season, play-offs? In such strong conference like the West is this year, from the start of the season teams have to focus about getting into top 6 and play every game like their lives depend on it.
Euroleague has 18 teams, 8 make into play-offs. Last season 11 teams had a record of 50% or more, but 9-11 places were terminated at the end of the regular season.
Glorified title contenders Bucks, second best in the East have 29 losses and a losing road record of 18-20. I wonder, what is the total top 11 teams in the West record against top 11 teams in the East?
Ufff... I don't expect NBA to get back to their senses and return to the prior format. I suffered like 6-8 minutes listening to the "Undisputed". To simplify - nobody cares about Kings. It's a small market team with no global mega dupa super stars. It's much more fun for them to blabber about antiques like LBJ or depleted and declining Warriors. "We are not going to watch Kings play... cause Sabonis is an over achieving role player". Well, Kings fans all over the world watch every their game (when they can).
Makes no sense to cry about the situation right now. Kings easily could be among top 4 in the West if not their consistent inconsistency. I just hope that 2 losses to Mavs at home was like a cold shower to them and we will play last 7 games of the regular season like it's a game 7 in a Conference final ;)
Kings have plenty of hidden potential, backed by the real talent. These last 7 games will let us know more about their "inner" strength.
It's the same thing MLB has done with their expanded playoffs -- more games means more revenue. And just looking at the standings this season, the NBA clearly wants to get the Lakers and Warriors and their huge global fanbases into the post-season if at all possible so if anything this is only going to cement the play-in as the new normal. I do wonder though how long the NBA will keep the East and West seperated with expansion potentially on the horizon and the East consistently lagging behind the West in All Stars and team record. Something like the NFL and MLB now have with regional divisions in each Conference might make more sense.
 
No way the kings make the 6th seed at this point. The only hope is keeping the 7th or 8th seed. Of all the teams.. would hate to see the lakers bump the kings out the 8th seed. Lakers are currently playing better than the kings. The only saving grace is that the Kings do have the tie breaker vs the lakers and it could very well come down to that.