The short-handed Blazers have been great since losing Jusuf Nurkic, but could the Kings have toppled them in the first round?
Here’s the one series where the Kings could’ve snuck away with a series win, or at least pushed it to seven games. Do I think the Kings would’ve beat the Portland Trailblazers? No. Would they have a chance? Absolutely.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are in a tailspin, but have managed to keep things close in the series, down just 2-1 after a blowout win in game three. The Blazers, meanwhile, are without their second-best player in Jusuf Nurkic after he suffered a gruesome injury late in the regular season. Translation: if the Thunder can do it, so can the Kings.
Sacramento went 1-2 against Portland in the season series, but both of those losses came by just five points, and one of them only happened after the Kings suffered a colossal collapse in the season finale. Their one win came by eight points.
Of course, it’s not likely the Kings would’ve won four out of seven games, but it’s possible. The Kings held a commanding lead over the Blazers in Portland in the season finale, a lead they might’ve been able to hold had something more important than 40 wins been on the line. The other two games came in Sacramento, the first of which when the Kings were dealing with some injuries in early January.
Would they have provided a more entertaining series than the Thunder? It’d probably be comparable, but the Kings would have a chance at winning, which is really what’s most important.