Hi y’all! Since there are a lot of questions about this, here’s a breakdown.
Source: https://x.com/JaceFrederick/status/1728291917463740688?s=20
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WAYS TO ADVANCE IN IST:
- Clinch group by becoming the team with the best record in the group (point differential is the tiebreaker).
- Become the wildcard team from your conference: team with the best record among teams who did not clinch their group (point differential is the tiebreaker).
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CURRENT STANDINGS RELEVANT TO US:
- Wolves are 2-1 with a -3 point diff.
- GSW 2-1, +5
- Kings 3-0, +29
- Suns are the wildcard team with 3-1 record, +34 point diff
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SO WOLVES CAN ADVANCE BY:
- Clinching group by beating OKC by 21 or more, and Kings lose to GSW by 12. This makes Wolves 3-1 with +18 point diff, and Kings and GSW are 3-1 with +17 point diff
- Becoming the Wildcard team by beating OKC by 38. This makes Wolves 3-1, +35 which beats Suns 3-1, +34
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QUICK NOTES:
- OKC struggles against big teams and don’t rebound well. They lost to the Nuggets by 32 this season. We beat them by 28 in the play-in (although there was no Chet then). On the flip side, OKC as a team shoot very well: 50% FG and 41% from 3.
- Warriors beating Kings by 12 may be a challenge for GSW unless Steph goes crazy.
Wait, so GSW has to win by at least 12 right? But if they get more we’d have just have to beat OKC by that much more
Yep! Exactly 12 so Kings and GSW point diff are under Wolves (if Wolves beat OKC by 21).
But if GSW wins by more, we need to win by more (specifically Wolves need to beat OKC by 9 more points than GSW beats Kings). So if GSW beats Kings by 14, we need to win by 23.