|
WHERE
DO YOU WANT TO BE?
Critic
Let's try to look
at last night's game with normal fan emotion
suspended for a moment. Which teams would
be the toughest opponents for the Kings
in the playoffs? I don't think there is
any doubt that it's the Spurs and Lakers.
Okay, so a GREAT playoff draw would assure
that they only had to meet at MOST one of
those two teams. That is currently the case.
Who would be the best first round draw the
Kings could pick out of those who are qualifying?
That would be the predictable Jazz. That
is currently the first round opponent they
are slated to face. In the second round,
the Kings would face the winner of Dallas-Portland
and I don't think either of those teams
have a serious chance against the Kings.
In other words, Kings Fans, the outcome
of last night's game (though perhaps not
the way it happened) was PERFECT for the
Kings. Anyone
who has ever played in any version of a
bracketed knock-out event (tennis, golf,
bridge, basketball, football) would be quick
to tell you that there is NO advantage to
playing tough opponents early -- as in NONE
WHATSOEVER. The best team does NOT always
win. I know that because I have been on
teams that upset better teams in Knock-out
events. Luck can matter. The closer the
teams are, the more likely an upset is because
it takes a smaller luck swing to change
the outcome. The more of your matches that
are close the more likely it is you'll get
upset. This isn't rocket science, but I
thought it might help to point out the obvious
and incontrovertable -- it's best to let
the Spurs and Lakers fight amongst themselves
for the right to play the Kings in the WCF
than for the Kings to have to fight one
of those two for the right to play the other
in the WCF. If
the equivalent of last night's game happened
in a qualifying stage for a bridge knock-out,
there would be grumbling by folks on the
team in the Spurs positon that the team
in the Kings' position last night probably
dumped the match/game. (I don't think there
is ANY chance that happened here, don't
get me wrong.) Because of such concerns
and many debates in periodicals about how
to avoid the unseemly situation where a
team has an incentive to lose a match, world
championship bridge Knock-out events now
do the qualifying stage differently in order
to preserve the integrity of the event.
The 1-4 seeds would be determined by record.
The 1 seed would get to pick its first-round
knock-out stage opponent from the other
4 qualifiers and if they picked a team that
had been in their qualifying group, then
there would be a carryover score based on
what happened head to head. The 2 seed would
then pick its opponent, the 3 seed would
pick its opponent and the 4 seed would get
whoever was left. BTW, if that method were
to be used here? The Spurs would pick Phx;
the Kings would pick Utah; the Mavs would
pick Portland and the TWolves would inherit
the Lakers. Hey, wait, that's EXACTLY the
brackets that would be the case if the season
were over now. Hmmm, must be fair seeding!
|
