For you eagle-eyed observers of Hawks.com, you may have noticed that in the last few minutes the Hawks magic number graphic on the home page shrunk from 3 to 2.

"How can that be?" you might be asking, since you know, the Hawks haven't technically played anyone yet today.

Allow me to explain.

The Hawks record currently sits at 41-29. Sitting in 9th place in the Eastern Conference is our Southeast Division rival the Charlotte Bobcats, with a record of 31-39. In theory, our magic number to clinch a spot over them should be 3 (as in, 3 wins gets us to 44, which they can't match, or 3 losses gets them to a best-case of 40 wins, which we've already bested). However, since we won the season series against Charlotte 3-1, they actually have to do better than that. The Bobcats would have to beat the Hawks' record outright to make the playoffs ahead of them, which means that if both teams finish, say, 42-40, Atlanta wins via the tiebreak. Therefore, any combination of 2 (Hawks wins and Bobcats losses) clinches a berth over Charlotte.

The Nets are the only team fighting for a playoff spot that owns a tie-break over the Hawks, but with 40 losses already, the Hawks need only 2 (Hawks wins or Nets losses) to sew that up as well.

So, whereas we woke up this morning thinking the Hawks magic number is 3, after closer inspection it turns out it's merely 2.

Which means if we win tonight over Minnesota, it moves down to 1, which is a virtual tie. Sweet!

Any questions?

UPDATE: All of which is to say, it's time to start thinking about playoff tickets - here's a link to the pre-sale, going on now - get them while they're hot!