Let's Make the Playoffs! & The State of the Opposition

[Tetsujin]

I really hope the Kings don't join those other in injury-land, but realistically it's just a matter of time before the Kings have a significant injury as well.

That's what's infuriated me so much about them wasting these games when they're mostly healthy ; getting strong games from 2 of their big 3 and still losing against not-good teams is not a recipe for success.

The thing is the Kings already have had to deal with their best player being injured. It could happen again but fingers crossed we got it out of the way early.

 

[kingsboi]

Yep, Blake, Bledsoe, and Burks all going down in a couple of days. I certainly don't want to turn this into the we hope the other team's players get injured thread, but all sorts of opportunity knocking. We've just got to get to the point when we KNOW we are going to take care of our business so that this opening do not get wasted for no reason.

and with all these injuries the Kings follow suit in typical King fashion and lose to a Blazers squad without Lillard

 

[Ron]

OK, since the Kings do everything upside down, or the hard way...

Call me delusional, but it's time to end that insanely long home winning streak that GSW is having, spanning 32 games (since January 27!).

Who else can surprise the Dubs in their home, but us Kings?
We owe it to the league.

Remember where you first heard this forecast...
Tomorrow, when the whole world will talk about how no-one saw it coming... just remember someone did.

 

[Amit149]

The way I see it our main 8th seed competitors are the Jazz and the Pelicans.

The Jazz suffered a lot of bad luck losing Exum for the whole season in the summer, than losing Gobert for a while and now with Burks- but they have a very easy game tonight against the 76ers- and if they win they will be 13-16, and 2 games ahead of us in case we lose to GS.

We have 2 games advantage on the Pelicans, but after a horrible start (with a lot of injured players) they are starting to play some decent basketball and this is a team that was predicted to be a playoff lock by many after winning 45 last year.
If they win against Orlando and we lose, it'll be only 1 game difference between us.

I think that Minnesota are to young and I'm not sure they are in win-now mode, Denver with all due respect to Malone doesn't really bother me, The Suns have a lot of issues and with Bledsoe out they should drop in the standings.
As weird as it may sound the only team other than the Jazz and Pelicans I can see competing for a playoff spot is Portland- they have some nice coaching and a lot of decent role-players around Lilard and McCollum.

 

[Bricklayer]

Nearly halfway through the season and still right there despite everything.

 

[IfAt1st]

Problem is - they really shouldn't have been aiming for the 8th seed.
With the West the way it is this year, they should have been aiming to get 5th seed, and a possible playoff series win.
They woulda been tied for 6th seed right now if they'd simply shown up and wanted to win at all against Charlotte, the T-Wolves, the Blazers, and the 76ers.

I don't see the Kings catching up 6.5 games on the Mavs, not with the way the Mavs get such home-cookin' on their floor. (And in their locker rooms, from what Doug Christie said)

 

[dude12]

At some point, Sac needs to go 7-3 or 8-2 in a 10 game stretch and get back to .500 and then play.500 or better ball the remainder of the year.....we are capable of this.....but you have to do it on the court as talk is cheap.

 

[Bricklayer]

Problem is - they really shouldn't have been aiming for the 8th seed.
With the West the way it is this year, they should have been aiming to get 5th seed, and a possible playoff series win.
They woulda been tied for 6th seed right now if they'd simply shown up and wanted to win at all against Charlotte, the T-Wolves, the Blazers, and the 76ers.

I don't see the Kings catching up 6.5 games on the Mavs, not with the way the Mavs get such home-cookin' on their floor. (And in their locker rooms, from what Doug Christie said)

Not a problem, just the way things are.

Memphis at #6 on down is still well within play though. We're only three back in the loss column from #6, and if we can stay in things, our schedule is easier the back half of the year than the first.

 

[William Blake]

Dallas and Memphis are not nearly as good as their record as well, they've been lucky and they've been functional, I wouldn't be surprised if one of them has a sudden falloff.

 

[Bricklayer]

New Orleans is a concern coming form the other way. In most West seasons they would have quit and blown it up weeks ago, But the sad state of the back half of the bracket has kept hope alive for them too, and they have stabilized + have a weak schedule coming up. They're right back at the back of the pack of failing pretenders., could easily be back in the mix by the All Star break.

 

[kingsboi]

a good start to getting back to .500 would be to stop playing down to the competition...let's see if that is the case from here on out.

 

[LPKingsFan]

a good start to getting back to .500 would be to stop playing down to the competition...let's see if that is the case from here on out.

The competition doesn't get much lower than tonight (eat it, Lakers)

 

[lwc]

We are now half a game out of the 8th seed.

 

[Im Still Ballin]

This was a must win because we're going to lose the next one. A matchup with Utah coming up. Need to make some movement before Gobert comes back.

 

[Tetsujin]

This was a must win because we're going to lose the next one. A matchup with Utah coming up. Need to make some movement before Gobert comes back.

He came back tonight.

 

[Im Still Ballin]

He came back tonight.

Damn

 

[hrdboild]

Half game out of the playoffs with Golden State coming to town. This would be a great time to finally decide to play 48 minutes of defense. If we want to be a playoff team this year, now is the time to make a statement. No more moral victories.

 

[lwc]

He came back tonight.

Did Hood return? I saw that he got helped off the court.

 

[Im Still Ballin]

If Curry isn't playing we may have a chance

 

[andjel]

Number of 50%+ opponents and road games in the next 10 games:
Jazz - 2 (6 on the road)
Portland - 3 (3 on the road)
Kings - 4 (5 on the road)
Houston - 6 (4 on the road)

Important January dates:
13th (Pelicans), 14th (Jazz), 26th (Trailblazers) and 28th (Pelicans)
4 out of 10 games count double


Never boring with Kings this season

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Half game out of the playoffs with Golden State coming to town. This would be a great time to finally decide to play 48 minutes of defense. If we want to be a playoff team this year, now is the time to make a statement. No more moral victories.

I'd feel a lot better about our chances if Casspi could go. Even then, we'd likely need an off shooting night from the champs for us to get the win. Without Casspi, we'll probably need them to be off, and for us to be perfect.

 

[biltalent]

New Orleans is a concern coming form the other way. In most West seasons they would have quit and blown it up weeks ago, But the sad state of the back half of the bracket has kept hope alive for them too, and they have stabilized + have a weak schedule coming up. They're right back at the back of the pack of failing pretenders., could easily be back in the mix by the All Star break.

Yes, you can't count anyone out at this point. Its actually going to be a very interesting season I think right until the end. Four of our last five games are against the Nuggets, Blazers, T-wolves and Suns.
We coud end up anywhere between the 6th seed if we play like the last 3 games (minus the LA breakdown) and the 14th seed

 

[VF21]

Half game out of the playoffs with Golden State coming to town. This would be a great time to finally decide to play 48 minutes of defense. If we want to be a playoff team this year, now is the time to make a statement. No more moral victories.

No more moral victories and NO MORE stupid substitutions. And no more brain farts. And no more lackadaisical attempts at defense. And no more stupid fouls. And no more losing your guy on defense. And no more walking up to the foul line like you're goofing at practice. ...

I could go on but I won't, primarily because I'm actually still in shock that we didn't lose.

 

[VF21]

If Curry isn't playing we may have a chance

I'm not sure, but this might actually be the first post of yours I've ever "liked".

 

[Warhawk]

I'd feel a lot better about our chances if Casspi could go. Even then, we'd likely need an off shooting night from the champs for us to get the win. Without Casspi, we'll probably need them to be off, and for us to be perfect.

Who would have thought we'd be saying this at the beginning of the season?

 

[upinsmoke]

Curry appears to be active today for Portland.

 

[Bricklayer]

Curry appears to be active today for Portland.

Said he was going to be.

But maybe on a back to back it swells up.

 

[upinsmoke]

Said he was going to be.

But maybe on a back to back it swells up.

Lol daaang

 

[SCKingsfan]

Said he was going to be.

But maybe on a back to back it swells up.

At least we get them on a back to back. Odds tick up ever so slightly

 

[Bricklayer]

We had a good night -- every single team we wanted to lose, with the possible exception of Memphis (which was a pick'um -- somebody had to win), lost. And A.D. may have tweaked his back which if it was anything significant could scuttle their expected surge.

We'll likely have to take our lumps tonight and fall back, but at least we've got some room cleared below us so we can maintain a gap and get back to work.