try, could you please update the Magic number table? I thought the Rockets have already clinched the playoff berth, as the Rockets hold head-to-head tie breaker against the Suns? Or do we have to wait for another Rockets win/NOP loss to clinch it?
http://www.playoffstatus.com/nba/westernsosrg.html Updated with games remaining. Hope that's what you were looking for.
http://www.playoffstatus.com/nba/westernwinmagicnumbers.html This one has the magic numbers (not incl. the wizards win or the grizz loss) so it looks like we need 7 wins to lock up the 4th seed and have home court. According to the Chart, we need some help from the Grizzlies to move up and secure the second or third seed. I assume itll be updated sometime today but things are definitely looking good.
Numbers have updated with us having a magic number of 8 and a 48% chance overall to clinch the number two seed. We have also clinched at least the 7th seed with the win yesterday over Washington.
The playoffstatus site has a serious bug in that they still the 3 list division winners as top 3 playoff spots. NBA is not doing that any more.
No, they don't. Their chart isn't by seed. It lists probability to win the division, then chance to finish in one of the 5 wildcard spots. The actual seeding is different.
Thanks. But I'm still confused by the wildcard part. The site says Portland can't be at the division 1 and wildcard 4 but in reality Portland could be anywhere except for the first placed clinched by GSW.
It's not a Magic Number of 8 in the sense of Houston needs to win any 8 of the last 9 games to clinch. They actually need to win 8 including all 4 division games. More likely though is that Houston will lose the tiebreaker with the Grizzlies, so the true "Magic Number" of Houston wins + Grizzlies losses is 9.
They can't finish in the best Wild Card spot. Mathematically impossible. If the Thunder win out, the Blazers would need to lose at least 8 of their last 10 (Portland has tiebreaker over Thunder). If that happens, the best a 33 loss Portland team can finish is the 2nd best wild card team.
I'm kind of surprised PlayoffStatus and ESPN's Holliinger both have the Rockets as the statistical favorite to win the Division. Although PlayoffStatus is close (48% to 44%). The Grizzlies closing 8 games are easy save for the @Clippers game. The only other hard game is @Warriors, but it's the penultimate game of the regular season, so who knows how much of the game Golden State's stars will play. The Rockets have 4 road games where they'll be the underdog, including tonight. And if the Rockets lose @Dallas in the 4th game in 5 nights and one of the two games against the Spurs, then the Grizzlies have the tiebreaker.
It is confusing, it would be easier to understand if it was in terms of seeds. Portland will be the 3rd division winner unless the end up behind OKC. There is no combination that allows the Blazers to lose their division, and still finish as the top wild card team. They could still be a 4 seed if the top wild card team has a better record.