Could the Sacramento Kings have won a playoff series in the West?

The Sacramento Kings had the NBA’s most surprising season this year, but still fell short of the playoffs. Could they have won if they made it?

Watching the NBA Playoffs (which have been fantastic thus far), got me thinking: could the Sacramento Kings have made some noise if they managed to make it?

Of course it’s near impossible to predict whether the Kings could’ve stolen a few games or even a series, as intensity ramps up in the playoffs and some teams can’t handle that — especially young teams (see: Denver Nuggets). But, watching the Los Angeles Clippers getting dominated by the Warriors in losses, the Rockets absolutely owning the Utah Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder putting up a less than inspired performance against the Portland Trailblazers makes you wonder if the Sacramento Kings could’ve done a better job than those teams against the West’s top-four seeds.

Speaking of the West’s top-four seeds, the only one not listed is the Denver Nuggets — the Western Conference’s number two seed — who have had their hands full against the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs are performing about as well as you could ask for against an incredibly, and young, Denver team and for the Sacramento Kings, who went 0-3 against the Nuggets this season, it’s not likely they could have done better. As for the other three playoff matchups, that’s not as certain.

So, is there any way the Kings could have toppled, or at least provided a more entertaining series, against one of the top seeds? Let’s go through it, from least-likely to most-likely.