On Saturday, the Denver Nuggets ended what was a thrilling seven-game series with a thunderous Game 7 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
Along with sending the Nuggets to the Western Conference Semifinals (where they have a date set with the Oklahoma City Thunder), this series win was significant for another reason. Beating the Clippers marked the first time in interim head coach David Adelman's career that he has coached an NBA team to a playoff series victory.
David Adelman does something the Kings haven't done since 2004
Adelman comes from basketball royalty. David Adelman is the son of Rick Adelman, a legendary head coach who spent over three decades coaching in the NBA (he also spent eight as a player).
Rick Adelman did his best work with the Portland Trail Blazers, taking them to two NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992. His teams lost, but they were pitted against the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons and Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in those matchups. So, coming up short against them is understandable.
More relevant to us here at A Royal Pain is his time with the Kings, an era that spanned nearly a decade (from 1998 to 2006). He didn't take Sacramento to the NBA Finals, but he was also responsible for the franchise's most successful stretch since moving to Northern California four decades ago.
He took them to the postseason every year he was there, including coming within one win of the NBA Finals in 2002 (a series against the Los Angeles Lakers that remains a soft spot among Kings' faithful). In total, Adelman won five playoff series with the Kings (all with current head coach Doug Christie on the roster).
Anyway, in 2004, Adelman defeated the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the Western Conference four games to one (before losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a thrilling seven-game series). That victory marks the last time the Kings have won a playoff series.
This brings us to the genesis of this post. By beating the Clippers in Game 7, David Adelman secured his first playoff series win in just his tenth overall game as a head coach (remember, he was named interim head coach after the team abruptly fired Michael Malone). This is something that any Kings coach since Rick Adelman (there have been 13 since his departure) hasn't managed to do in over two decades.
It remains to be seen whether or not the Nuggets will remove David Adelman's interim tag the same way the Kings did with Christie, but man, does this stat really strengthen his case.