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.