Do Western Conference teams want to face Sacramento Kings in first round of NBA playoffs?

The Kings are going into the playoffs with the highest-scoring team in the NBA and the No. 1 offensive rating of all-time, but apparently there are some teams that hope to see them in the opening round.

The Kings have clinched their first playoff berth sine 2006 and homecourt advantage for the first round. They currently hold the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, which means they would face the No. 6 seed in the West.

Teams like the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers want the No. 6 seed simply because they could avoid the play-in tournament after failing to meet expectations this season. However, they might be targeting the Kings for a couple of other reasons.

For one thing, the Kings are 24th in defensive rating (115.9) and 26^th in scoring defense (118.0 ppg). They also lack playoff experience. The only players on Sacramento’s roster who have been to the playoffs Domantas Sabonis, Harrison Barnes, Matthew Dellavedova and Alex Len.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst specifically pointed to the Lakers as a team that “would like to” get matched up against the Kings in the first round. The Lakers are eighth in the West, 1 ½ games behind the Warriors.

“Teams in the West look at the Kings as the team that can be upset because, No. 1, they haven’t done it before, and No. 2, they have a weak defense,” Windhorst said. “They have an awesome offense with a weak defense, and in the playoffs … they know that offense comes down and defense goes up.”

Warriors forward Draymond Green said on his podcast he would also like to face the Kings in the first round, although he mentioned travel as his primary reason.

“I’m not upset at if the standings shook out how they did today and we met Sacramento in the first round,” Green said. “Not because I think Sacramento is a weak team, because the travel is so much easier.

“The reason why I said Sac is simply just because of the travel. That’s a lot on your body. If we can bus ride an hour and 10 minutes up the way, I just think that’s much better for us. At the end of the day, I don’t really care who we play in the playoffs. I think we can win.”