RealGM

It is that time of year again. I thought it would be helpful if I posted the formula. Ignoring tie breakers the formula for a magic number is

83 - Pacer Wins - Other Team's Losses

if you know we have the tiebreaker, you can change the number to 82.

Here is an example. Pacer magic number to clinch the 7 spot is

83 - 46 (Pacer Wins) - 36 (Bucks Losses) = 1

Head to head results are 2-2 so that tiebreaker doesn't come into play. If we lost every remaining game and they were to win every game, we'd be tied at 46 and 36 and some tiebreaker would be considered but that's a remote possibility.

I suppose I should add that every team below the Bucks has more than 36 losses already which is why we have clinched the 8 spot. Boston has 34 losses making the current magic number for the 7 spot 3. Anyone interested can take it from here as the season goes on.

We have now locked in at least the 4. The Nets have beaten us twice so they own the head to head tiebreaker making our magic number to finish ahead of them 2 and we play them Friday so if we win that game we are at least 3rd.

We are ahead of the Knicks 2-1 and play them Sunday so if we win that game we have the head to head tiebreaker. if we lose Sunday, the head to head would be tied and they have the lead in the conference record which is the next tiebreaker. so if my math is right, a NY win Sunday would give them the 2 seed. a Pacer win would give us the tiebreaker and leave their magic number to lock us out at 3 not counting games between now and Sunday. bottom line: we can't get to the 2 without beating the Knicks and having them lose twice more while we win out (add 1 to that for each lose we might have). so root for Chicago over the Knicks on Thursday.

all numbers are 0. Nets can do no better than tie us and it turns our we have the tiebreaker because a division winner beats a number 2 even if the head to head series went the other way which it did. also, we can no longer catch the Knicks for 2. we need to use the last two games to practice. we are not playing well. (huge understatement)

I'm really hoping the Bulls can catch the Hawks for the 5th seed. It will be a brutal first round series against the Bulls, though I think we'd pull it out. They're the strongest low seed this year, though I wouldn't particularly want to play Boston either.

Seems when Hibbert plays well, George's game is off, and vice versa. They need to find a way to both be effective on the offensive side. Will be tough going against Deng and possibly Noah.