Framing the Western Play-In

Five really, really good teams

The East — lesser — gave us archetypes.

The West grants us really really really good teams.

SACRAMENTO KINGS

Really, really good.

(38-28, No. 6, 2.5 games behind fifth-seeded New Orleans, percentage points ahead of No. 7 Mavs.)

The Kings feel like they’re a few bad calls and bum free throws away from looking and acting and winnin’ like one of the West’s best four teams. Beaming like someone with home-court advantage in the first-round, this season’s goal. Yet disrespect runs rampant in the Kings’ court, the referees don’t want to know and the Kings wouldn’t know what to do with it if they got there, nobody misses more free throws than Sacto.

Sacramento shoots the sixth-fewest free throws in spite of all the slaps I hear and see and sometimes smell. Plus the Kings infamously dropped from No. 12 in free throw percentage in 2022-23 to dead last (and by a lot) in 2023-24, probably because their arms hurt from being slapped.