CubanMustGo
05-05-2006, 11:18 AM
Does an eighth seed stand a chance?
Kings will have to ignore history to make it
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Staff Writer
http://www.sacbee.com/static/rich_content_images/231928-0505kings.jpg
Oh, Gregg Popovich said the right things. He's a sharpie. He didn't even need to wait for Game 5 to break out the other night, a game that became another forehead-slapping, you-sure-they-can't-play-a-fifth-quarter? scrum, to know what to speak about the Kings.
"That eighth-seed stuff is only on paper," the San Antonio coach told reporters. "They're a legit third, fourth, fifth seed - or better - if they had played like this and had this team all year.
"It's a horrendous matchup for a first-seeded team," Popovich added. "You're supposed to play the lesser team. This (Sacramento) team can play with the best teams in the league, without a doubt."
Like warm, soapy water, those words.
And now, direct from Freezing Shower Central, the truth:
It's still a No. 8 vs. a No. 1.
Sure, the Kings are no ordinary eighth seed. Sacramento had to play the second half of the season with the anvil of the first half tied around its waist. Mitigate that smell-o-rific start, and the Kings finish up somewhere around where Popovich is projecting them.
Then again, the Spurs are a legitimate No. 1 seed, not some fluke in a down season. They didn't get here by accident. San Antonio, defending champion of the league, won 63 games during the regular season - a total, for those keeping score at home, that exceeds by two the record compiled by the best-ever Kings team that made the Western Conference finals in 2001-02.
In other words, this all still looks hard because it is. And with the Kings down 3-2 in the series and Game 6 coming up tonight at the Gas Pump, this seems as good a time as any to review the history - if for no other reason than to appreciate the nature of what Sacramento is even threatening to do.
In the annals of the NBA postseason, an eighth seed has taken down a top seed exactly twice. Both of those occurred when the first round was still in its best-of-five era, in which a single defeat could suddenly plunge a putative championship contender into end-of-season jeopardy.
It happened first in 1994, when the Denver Nuggets stormed back from a 2-0 deficit to win the next three games over the SuperSonics, including Game 5 in Seattle. It happened again in 1999, when Allan Houston's memorable one-handed runner with 0.8 seconds left gave the No. 8 Knicks a 3-2 series win over the Miami Heat - and a momentum that carried them all the way to the NBA Finals, in which they were suffocated by the Spurs.
Otherwise, not so much. Not at all in pro hoops.
Eight over One happens all the time in the NHL; in fact, it occurred again just this week, when the top-seeded Detroit Red Wings were ousted by Edmonton. That makes seven such 8-defeats-1 upsets in 12 years, which proves what many have long suspected: Hockey is a weird sport, thrilling in its refusal to be predictable.
But there are reasons the bottom-feeders generally stay on bottom in the NBA's second season. Most of the time, it's because they've fully earned their status.
Consider Milwaukee, Sacramento's sister eight seed from the Eastern Conference. The Bucks went 40-42 over the season and 4-6 over their final 10 games leading into the playoffs, whereupon Detroit took them out in five contests. Utterly appropriate.
Such is what Popovich might have hoped for as the No. 1 seed in the West, just as Phoenix a year ago was rewarded for its 62-win season with an efficient first-round sweep of compliant Memphis. (San Antonio was the No. 2 seed last year and dumped Denver in five games in the first round.)
But that is precisely what makes this Kings-Spurs series so different - and why it has become one of several compelling first-round matchups this year, alongside Lakers-Suns and Cavs-Wizards. Popovich is right: This is no ordinary No. 8 seed.
"We're a pretty good team," said Bonzi Wells, the breakout player of this postseason. "We're not at the level that San Antonio has been on, but for the time we've been together, we're starting to jell - starting to play well."
It's verifiable. Sacramento went 26-12 after the initial weekend of the Ron Artest-Peja Stojakovic trade in January. That is well beyond the work of Denver and Memphis, the Nos. 3 and 5 seeds, respectively, which both played ho-hum basketball down the season's stretch.
Denver was quickly bounced out of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Clippers, and Memphis was swept by Dallas. In retrospect, Popovich has only half-jokingly suggested, the Spurs might have been better off losing the Midwest Division to the Mavericks and "falling" to the No. 4 seed, where they would have had the Grizzlies.
Even after the Spurs' 109-98 victory in Game 5, Popovich had plenty to chew on. For one thing, his team has won only its home games. For another, the Spurs haven't yet come close to containing Wells - or, most of the time, Wells' running mate, Ron Artest.
"I think people are really interested in this series," Artest said. "Nobody is counting us out, except maybe Spurs fans. But we'll be all right."
Still, all of that is but a prelude to where this playoff actually stands. Despite everything, despite the worry and even the physical punishment that Sacramento occasionally has been able to put on San Antonio, it is the Spurs who hold the series edge.
The series stands 3-2 in favor of the No. 1 seed, not the other way around. Only one team can be eliminated tonight, and it isn't the Spurs. And one reason for that is that San Antonio did not fall backward into its place in the standings.
With Tim Duncan not at full strength and Manu Ginobili's game coming and going, Popovich still has a roster full of potential game-winners: Tony Parker, Michael Finley, Robert Horry, Bruce Bowen, Nick Van Exel, Brent Barry.
It is a roster that was pieced together specifically to contend and win at this time of year, a roster that is both broad and deep by design.
"The Spurs were champions last year for a reason," Finley said. In its own way, it is a testament to what the Kings have managed so far that people have found themselves trying to recall specifically what that reason was.
Kings will have to ignore history to make it
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Staff Writer
http://www.sacbee.com/static/rich_content_images/231928-0505kings.jpg
Oh, Gregg Popovich said the right things. He's a sharpie. He didn't even need to wait for Game 5 to break out the other night, a game that became another forehead-slapping, you-sure-they-can't-play-a-fifth-quarter? scrum, to know what to speak about the Kings.
"That eighth-seed stuff is only on paper," the San Antonio coach told reporters. "They're a legit third, fourth, fifth seed - or better - if they had played like this and had this team all year.
"It's a horrendous matchup for a first-seeded team," Popovich added. "You're supposed to play the lesser team. This (Sacramento) team can play with the best teams in the league, without a doubt."
Like warm, soapy water, those words.
And now, direct from Freezing Shower Central, the truth:
It's still a No. 8 vs. a No. 1.
Sure, the Kings are no ordinary eighth seed. Sacramento had to play the second half of the season with the anvil of the first half tied around its waist. Mitigate that smell-o-rific start, and the Kings finish up somewhere around where Popovich is projecting them.
Then again, the Spurs are a legitimate No. 1 seed, not some fluke in a down season. They didn't get here by accident. San Antonio, defending champion of the league, won 63 games during the regular season - a total, for those keeping score at home, that exceeds by two the record compiled by the best-ever Kings team that made the Western Conference finals in 2001-02.
In other words, this all still looks hard because it is. And with the Kings down 3-2 in the series and Game 6 coming up tonight at the Gas Pump, this seems as good a time as any to review the history - if for no other reason than to appreciate the nature of what Sacramento is even threatening to do.
In the annals of the NBA postseason, an eighth seed has taken down a top seed exactly twice. Both of those occurred when the first round was still in its best-of-five era, in which a single defeat could suddenly plunge a putative championship contender into end-of-season jeopardy.
It happened first in 1994, when the Denver Nuggets stormed back from a 2-0 deficit to win the next three games over the SuperSonics, including Game 5 in Seattle. It happened again in 1999, when Allan Houston's memorable one-handed runner with 0.8 seconds left gave the No. 8 Knicks a 3-2 series win over the Miami Heat - and a momentum that carried them all the way to the NBA Finals, in which they were suffocated by the Spurs.
Otherwise, not so much. Not at all in pro hoops.
Eight over One happens all the time in the NHL; in fact, it occurred again just this week, when the top-seeded Detroit Red Wings were ousted by Edmonton. That makes seven such 8-defeats-1 upsets in 12 years, which proves what many have long suspected: Hockey is a weird sport, thrilling in its refusal to be predictable.
But there are reasons the bottom-feeders generally stay on bottom in the NBA's second season. Most of the time, it's because they've fully earned their status.
Consider Milwaukee, Sacramento's sister eight seed from the Eastern Conference. The Bucks went 40-42 over the season and 4-6 over their final 10 games leading into the playoffs, whereupon Detroit took them out in five contests. Utterly appropriate.
Such is what Popovich might have hoped for as the No. 1 seed in the West, just as Phoenix a year ago was rewarded for its 62-win season with an efficient first-round sweep of compliant Memphis. (San Antonio was the No. 2 seed last year and dumped Denver in five games in the first round.)
But that is precisely what makes this Kings-Spurs series so different - and why it has become one of several compelling first-round matchups this year, alongside Lakers-Suns and Cavs-Wizards. Popovich is right: This is no ordinary No. 8 seed.
"We're a pretty good team," said Bonzi Wells, the breakout player of this postseason. "We're not at the level that San Antonio has been on, but for the time we've been together, we're starting to jell - starting to play well."
It's verifiable. Sacramento went 26-12 after the initial weekend of the Ron Artest-Peja Stojakovic trade in January. That is well beyond the work of Denver and Memphis, the Nos. 3 and 5 seeds, respectively, which both played ho-hum basketball down the season's stretch.
Denver was quickly bounced out of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Clippers, and Memphis was swept by Dallas. In retrospect, Popovich has only half-jokingly suggested, the Spurs might have been better off losing the Midwest Division to the Mavericks and "falling" to the No. 4 seed, where they would have had the Grizzlies.
Even after the Spurs' 109-98 victory in Game 5, Popovich had plenty to chew on. For one thing, his team has won only its home games. For another, the Spurs haven't yet come close to containing Wells - or, most of the time, Wells' running mate, Ron Artest.
"I think people are really interested in this series," Artest said. "Nobody is counting us out, except maybe Spurs fans. But we'll be all right."
Still, all of that is but a prelude to where this playoff actually stands. Despite everything, despite the worry and even the physical punishment that Sacramento occasionally has been able to put on San Antonio, it is the Spurs who hold the series edge.
The series stands 3-2 in favor of the No. 1 seed, not the other way around. Only one team can be eliminated tonight, and it isn't the Spurs. And one reason for that is that San Antonio did not fall backward into its place in the standings.
With Tim Duncan not at full strength and Manu Ginobili's game coming and going, Popovich still has a roster full of potential game-winners: Tony Parker, Michael Finley, Robert Horry, Bruce Bowen, Nick Van Exel, Brent Barry.
It is a roster that was pieced together specifically to contend and win at this time of year, a roster that is both broad and deep by design.
"The Spurs were champions last year for a reason," Finley said. In its own way, it is a testament to what the Kings have managed so far that people have found themselves trying to recall specifically what that reason was.