Games Behind
In the tables of many North American sports leagues, such as the NFL , the NBA or the MLB , you can find the category Games Behind , or GB for short . Since not in these leagues, such as B. in European sports leagues, the table is sorted according to the number of points achieved, but rather from the ratio of games won to lost, this should show the gap between the table first and another team. This is especially useful because during a season it can happen that the teams to be compared have played different numbers of games.
The value for games behind is calculated using the following formula, where team A is first in the table and team B is one behind:
Examples
The Toronto Raptors have a record of 16 wins and 6 losses, or 22 games.
The Brooklyn Nets have only played 19 games at the same time, with 8 wins and 11 losses.
According to the formula given above, the Nets are 6.5 games behind the Raptors, i.e. they have a GB value of 6.5 compared to the Raptors, although they have 8 fewer wins in their account or have already suffered 5 more losses.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have a record of 20-17.
The San Francisco Giants stand at 17-20.
This results in a GB value of 3.0 for the Giants.
To catch up it is necessary that they win the next 3 games and the Dodgers lose the next 3 games.
If these two teams would now meet in the next home series, consisting of 3 games, a sweep , i.e. a winning streak, could result in a tie between the Giants and the Dodgers in the table. So GB = 0.