Where the Kings and Pelicans stand out

Instead of asking which top-4 West seeds are susceptible to an upset, let's look at how the No. 5-10 teams fare against the elite.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Woman Drinking With Soliders; Pieter de Hooch; 1658

We know who the top four seeds in the Western Conference will be come time for the playoffs, barring some epic collapse by one of them down the stretch. And discussions of these teams have largely centered around which are most vulnerable to being upset in the first round.

Let’s turn that question on its head: which of the teams sitting No. 5 through 10 are best positioned to upset an opponent in the first round?

If you look at history (Lakers, Warriors) and star power (Mavericks, Suns), you’d pick those teams. If you look at current-year performance against the top-4 West teams, you’d have another menu entirely.

Here’s the record for each team in the bottom half of the bracket (including play-in) against the top four teams in the West (Thunder, Wolves, Nuggets and Clippers) so far:

• Kings: 8-5 (2 remaining)

• Pelicans: 6-6 (2 remaining)

• Lakers: 5-7 (3 remaining)

• Mavericks: 3-8 (3 remaining)

• Suns: 1-5 (7 remaining)

• Warriors: 2-12 (1 remaining)

That’s right: the Sacramento Kings are 8-5 against the conference’s upper class with two games remaining (home vs. Clippers, road vs. Thunder). The story of Sacramento’s season has been that they give great teams all they’ve got and they come in soft against bad teams. (The Kings went 2-2 against the Hornets and Pistons this season. They are 3-1 against the Nuggets.)

The New Orleans Pelicans could finish above .500 against the West elite, too.