As I was watching Phil Mickelson sink his putt on the 18th green at the Masters for his first-ever major victory, I began to wonder: Who is the best recent team in the NBA never to win a championship?

The answer is right here in our fair city of Sacramento. The Kings, like Mickelson, have had all the talent in the world and have been very successful. Yet, when it has come down to executing and striving in pressure packed situations, the Kings have stumbled and failed.

Just as Mickelson had won more than 20 regular PGA tournaments, the Kings have won three Pacific Division championships, but haven’t turned their regular-season prowess into post-season success.

After the Kings defeated the Lakers Sunday, head coach Rick Adelman, his staff and his players who have been there for most of this playoff run should have sat in front of a television and watched “Lefty” finally break through and win that elusive major title.

Will the Kings ever win that elusive championship?

Being the two-seed in the West means another division championship and home-court advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Not a bad regular season, right? Wrong.

At the beginning of March, the Kings were cruising through the Western Conference. Minnesota was in their rear-view mirror and the Lakers were five games back.

And then Chris Webber decided to crash the party.

To be fair, the reason the Kings have gone 12-10 since March 1 and lost the top seed in the West is not entirely Webber’s fault. But it’s hard to argue that he isn’t a main reason for it either.

Since returning from his knee injury, Webber is averaging 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists a game. Very solid numbers. But Webber and his teammates have yet to find a consistent flow to the offense since his return.

Webber is only shooting 41.9 percent from the field this season and that 2-for-21 showing against the Warriors on March 9 was downright brutal.

But Webber continues to talk about getting back into the flow, yet the offense has stalled since his return because the other four players on the court watch him force shots instead of moving without the basketball.

Peja Stojakovic, who had been a MVP candidate for much of the season, has been relegated to second option again because Webber needs to take 18 shots a game, while only make seven of them. Stojakovic is one of the NBA’s most efficient scorers but has struggled to get the looks he was getting before Webber’s comeback.

But it isn’t all Webber.

Since the All-Star break, the Kings have played some of the most atrocious defense this town has ever seen. The Kings are not rotating enough on the defensive end and that has cost them many games during the second half of season.

A reason for that is that Bobby Jackson, the NBA’s reigning sixth-man, has been out longer than the team anticipated. His energy off the bench was contagious and he made the Kings a better team on both ends of the court. They lack that right now.

But when Jackson went on the injured list, did the Kings’ defensive intensity go on the injured list, too? Sure looks that way.

As for the booing going on at Arco since Webber has come back, I’m all for it. But direct it at someone else, while you’re at it.

If there is anyone who should receive some boos because of the Kings’ lackluster performances lately it should be head coach Rick Adelman.

Adelman has always been a coach who had been afraid to mix things up with the Kings because he has valued team chemistry.

So far, this team chemistry theory has resulted in zero championships and it looks as though the team may be headed in that same direction again.

Now, I’m not a big fan of the purple and white colors.

I am an old school red, white, and blue Kings guy myself. And the green jacket that the champion of the Masters gets is pretty hideous, as well.

But if the Kings could play like they did Sunday versus the Lakers and keep that intensity throughout the playoffs, then a purple and white championship banner will hang from the Arco rafters.

And, much like that hideous green jacket on Mickelson, it will look just right.

Contact Danny Pinto at [email protected]