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Games behind

In some North American sports, the phrase games behind or games back (often abbreviated GB) refers to a common way to reflect the gap between a leading team and another team in a sports league, conference, or division.

It can alternately be said that Montreal is six games ahead of Atlanta.

A games behind situation can change rapidly when two teams contesting for the lead play each other. For example, Atlanta could cut Montreal's lead in half (to three games) by sweeping a three-game head-to-head series.

The leading team, in terms of games behind, is the team with the best won–loss difference. This is not always the team with the most wins. For example, a team with an 80–70 record (10 more wins than losses) would be one game behind a team with a 79–67 record (12 more wins than losses).

Games behind is calculated by using either of the following formulas, in which Team A is a leading team, and Team B is a trailing team. Example math in this section uses the above standings, with Montreal as Team A and Atlanta as Team B.


Alternately:


Notes:

Two teams with different may be tied in terms of games behind.[3] For example, Team A at 6–4 would be tied with Team B at 4–2, in terms of games behind; however, Team B has the better winning percentage, at .667 compared to .600 for Team A.

winning percentages

A team with a lower winning percentage may lead (in terms of games behind) a team with a higher winning percentage. For example, Team A at 6–4 would lead Team B at 2–1 by a half-game when calculating games behind. However, Team B has the better winning percentage at .667, compared to .600 for Team A.

[4]

A games behind calculation can be misleading when attempting to compare teams that have played an unequal number of games. This is because the games behind calculation simply computes the difference between wins and losses for each team, and then averages those two numbers. Essentially, this treats each unplayed game as being a tie (i.e. 1⁄2 win and a 1⁄2 loss).


In reality, teams in an actual sports league can have an unequal number of games played due to various scheduling anomalies, postponements, or cancellations. This can result in:


Such conditions have occurred multiple times in major sports leagues, examples include:


There are likely many other examples of this in MLB history.


There are likely many other examples of this in NBA history.


Leagues generally use winning percentage to order teams in official standings. However, standings appearing in newspapers or online may order teams based on games behind.

the number of wins needed to clinch a championship

Magic number (sports)

at Baseball Prospectus

GB glossary entry