The Detroit Shock's "magic number" to clinch second place in the WNBA East is now 1...meaning either one Shock win or one Indiana loss gives Detroit the home court against the Fever in the first round playoff.

Detroit plays Washington tonight, while Indiana plays Connecticut. So actually, we have all four Eastern conference playoff teams playing each other tonight, albeit not in the same matchups (Connecticut-Washington and Detroit-Indiana) as in the playoffs.

Then Detroit plays Connecticut in the regular season finale on Sunday while Indiana closes against Chicago. The Chicago Sky have continued the most difficult tradition of pro expansion teams, and have suffered through tribulations similar to the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers of 1976 and the MLB's New York Mets of 1961. Things will surely get better in time for the women of the Windy City, but that is likely to be little consolation to this season's team.

In the West, Phoenix still has a shot at the fourth and final postseason berth, thanks in large part to a triple-overtime win over Houston in which Diana Taurasi tallied 47 points to set a new WNBA record. Also, Houston still has a slim chance of passing Seattle for the third spot in the West. Seattle and Houston play tomorrow, and if the Storm win they will finish third and consign either the Comets or Mercury to fourth.

The WNBA regular season is almost over, and so the playoff picture is coming into sharper view.

In the East, Connecticut has clinched the #1 seed and Washington the #4, which means that they will play each other in the opening round with Conn. having home court advantage.

The other East first round series will be Detroit vs. Indiana, with the home court yet to be determined. The Shock are a game ahead of Indiana and need any combination of three Shock wins or Fever losses to clinch second place.

In the West, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Seattle are all in, with Houston and Phoenix battling for the fourth and final postseason spot. Los Angeles will have home court against whoever ends up #4, while Sacto. will have the same against the #3 seed.