Do I have to watch the first round now?

After tonight's convincing win at San Antonio, it begs the question, can the Kings knock off the Spurs in the first round? Well, let's take a look at history shall we? The first #8 seed to take out a #1 seed was the 1994 Denver Nuggets. The 1994 Nuggets played .500 ball all year, finishing 42-40 before taking out the top-ranked Seattle Supersonics and then scaring the Jazz, taking them to a 7th game. In fact, in that series, the Nuggets almost made more history by dropping the first three games, including a 111-109 loss in game 3, before taking the next three. I didn't know this team. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf is a personal favorite of mine, Dikembe too.  Lafonso Ellis, Reggie Williams, Bryant Stith, Robert Pack, Rodney Rogers, and the former Brian Williams rounded out the bunch. This was a defense-centric team, anchored by Mutombo and his 4.1 blocks per game; and balanced, with 5 and almost 6 players averaging double-figures. The Seattle team that they knocked off finished the regular season 63-19. Kemp and Payton at their best, Schrempf, Ricky Pierce, Kendall Gill and Sam Perkins each averaged more than 12 ppg. Cage and McMillian both got 20+ minutes. Denver split the season series with Seattle, winning both at home and losing both on the road. They were 1-4 against Utah during the regular season. The Nuggets were 28-28 at one point, 35-35 and ended 42-40... so it wasn't as though they got better during the end of the regular season. Did they get it together during the playoffs? Did they just match up well against Seattle? Is George Karl really just a bad coach? Those were probably all factors, as well as Denver being solid at home - a place that can be tough to play at due to the high altitude. The next time this #8 over #1 feat was accomplished was in 1999 when the Knicks upset the Heat in Game 5 on Allan Houston's last-second runner. The Knicks were largely comprised of Houston, Ewing, Sprewell, Larry Johnson, Kurt Thomas, Ward and Camby. The Knicks were 19-6 at home in this labor strife-shortened season. Like the Nuggets before them, having a significant home winning percentage was essential. Again a defense-oriented team, the Knicks held Miami to score totals of 75, 82, 73, 87 and 77 during their series. So, is this a similar situation? The Kings do have balanced scoring with Bibby, Artest, Miller, Wells, Abur-Rahim and Kevin Martin. With Artest, they now have a legitimate stopper and an emotional leader. At 21-12 overall and 12-2 at home since Artest joined the team, the Kings are the equivalent of a 50 win team, a more worthy opponent than the Spurs have faced in the past. There are a couple of things working in the Spurs favor. Currently, the 1st round is a best of 7 series (likely due to TV), whereas series were 5 games until 2003. A 7-game series will almost always be won by the better team, barring injuries. Another factor is the increased rest between games. In 1999, NY and Miami played their 5 games between the 8th and 16th of May. The other factor - the Spurs are reigning champions, more mature and deeper than last year's squad. Popovich is a great coach and choking seems unlikely. Sacramento is a 32-1 longshot to win the Western Conference on WSEX.com... this is a tradable contract. If Sac wins the first round, the value of the contract would rise from 3 to maybe 33-ish... (figured from a 70% chance of then beating the 4-5 winner and then 50% of the winning the Conference Finals). Even if the resulting price was only 27, that would be a 9-fold gain, implying a 10% chance of beating the Spurs. If I hadn't lost all my money on the previous bets that I recommended, I would jump on this one.