Kings playoff tracker: Where Sacramento stands in Western race going into game vs. Suns

Jason Anderson
·3 min read

The Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings are sitting pretty in the Western Conference playoff race. The other teams are all trying to fight their way through a mud wrestling match that has turned into a battle royal.

The Kings are third in the West, 5 ½ games behind the top-seeded Nuggets and two games behind the No. 2 Grizzlies. The Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers are a distant 4 ½ game behind the Kings, leading a pack of nine teams separated by only three games with just over two weeks remaining in the regular season.

Sacramento’s magic number hasn’t moved following back-to-back losses to the Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics, but the Kings are all but assured of making the playoffs for the first time since 2006 with a strong likelihood of securing homecourt advantage in the first round. Here’s what they have to do to end the longest playoff drought in NBA history — and the longest active streak in North American professional sports — after 16 consecutive losing seasons.

Record: 43-29

Current position: No. 3 in the Western Conference

Who they would play: If the playoffs started today, the Kings would play the No. 6 seed, the Golden State Warriors, in the first round of the playoffs.

Homecourt advantage: Yes, the Kings would currently have homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs, which will begin April 15.

Next up: The Kings will play the Suns on Friday at Golden 1 Center.

Games remaining: 10

Magic number for playoffs: 3

The top six teams in the West will secure automatic playoff berths. The Minnesota Timberwolves (37-37) now have sole possession of seventh in the West following the Oklahoma City Thunder’s loss to the Clippers on Thursday. The Timberwolves are followed by the Dallas Mavericks (36-37), Los Angeles Lakers (36-37), New Orleans Pelicans (36-37), Thunder (36-37) and Jazz (35-37). None of these teams can finish with more than 45 wins, so Sacramento’s magic number to clinch a top-six seed is three.

Magic number for homecourt advantage: 4

The top four teams in the West will have homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The No. 5 Clippers (39-35) and No. 6 Warriors (38-36) have eight games remaining. If both teams go 8-0, the Clippers would finish with 47 wins and the Warriors with 46. In that unlikely event, the Kings would only have go 4-6 to match or exceed those win totals. If the Kings and Clippers both finish with 47 wins, Sacramento would win the tiebreaker for the No. 4 seed by virtue of its 3-1 advantage in the season series against Los Angeles.

Magic number for play-in tournament: 3

The teams that finish seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th in the West will compete in the play-in tournament with a chance to earn the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds in the playoffs. There are six teams vying for those four spots — the Timberwolves, Mavericks, Lakers, Pelicans, Thunder and Jazz — and all six are within three games of the No. 4 Suns and No. 5 Clippers. None of those teams can finish with more than 45 wins, so the Kings only have to go 3-7 to assure themselves of a better record.

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