Games behind

Encyclopedia : G : GA : GAM : Games behind

In sports, the phrase games behind, often abbreviated as GB in tables, is a common way to reflect the gap between a leading team and another team in a sports league, conference, or division. It is determined by adding the difference in wins between a leading team and the team of interest to the difference in losses between the two teams, and dividing by two. The leading team itself is always zero games behind. Often this is indicated in tables by a dash rather than a zero.

It is often used in professional baseball and basketball. Usually, in tables of standings in newspapers and magazines kept during the season, teams are ordered by the number of games they are behind the division leader. Rankings of this kind may differ from rankings by winning percentage unless the teams involved have all played about the same number of games.

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