Comfortable might be a stretch.
The Otago Nuggets are in a reasonably good place, considering the situation, heading into the National Basketball League’s final weekend, though.
They find themselves on nine wins, in a three-way tie for fourth with the Wellington Saints and Hawke’s Bay Hawks.
Trailing them are the Canterbury Rams on eight and the Franklin Bulls — who have an extra game to play — on seven.
All five remain a chance of taking the final three top-six spots.
The Nelson Giants, Taranaki Airs and Auckland Tuatara have already locked in places.
The simplest way for the Nuggets to guarantee a finals spot would be to beat the Bulls at the Edgar Centre on Sunday.
That would ensure both the Bulls, who would be favoured to beat the Southland Sharks on Friday, cannot catch them.
Likewise, it would put them out of reach of the Rams, who have yet to play the Hawks.
If the Nuggets lose, the tiebreak situation still works in their favour.
Their two wins over the Hawks put them ahead in a tie there.
They split their games with the Saints, but come out on top in the head-to-head points difference thanks to a depleted team’s effort to stick around in Wellington.
If the Bulls beat both the Nuggets and Southland, it would have to be by more than 17 points to go ahead of the Nuggets.
The one team the Nuggets do not want to tie with is the Rams, the Canterbury team having won both games against the Nuggets this year.
All simple enough, right?
Where things get confusing is if a three-way, or even four-way, tie eventuates.
In that case, a head-to-head, or mini-table, between the teams involved in the tie would determine the order.
Again, provided the Rams do not enter this equation, the Nuggets should emerge fine.
Even if they do, the upper hand the Nuggets hold over the other teams will benefit them.
The easy way to avoid all of that is to win on Sunday, which would lock in fourth spot and a match against the fifth-placed finisher on Wednesday in Auckland.
They will have their hands full against a Bulls team containing star scorer Corey Webster in the backcourt.
The Saints, who are looking as dangerous as anyone in the league right now, claimed a significant win over the table-topping Nelson Giants on Tuesday night to move to nine wins.
They have an equally tough task on Saturday night, as they look to clinch their playoff berth against an Auckland Tuatara team that has back the services of star forward Chris Johnson.
Auckland could have plenty to play for, too.
If the Airs lose to the Giants tonight, the Tuatara can tie them on 11 wins and would jump into second place on the tiebreak.
That would crucially give them a direct route through the first round of playoff matches and straight into the semifinals, on Thursday and Friday.
Much hinges on the Hawks’ game against the Rams in Napier on Saturday afternoon.
That can either end the Rams’ hopes and secure the Hawks a spot, or create a potentially very complicated tie-break situation.
The playoffs begin in Auckland with third playing sixth and fourth playing fifth on Wednesday.
First place then plays the lowest-placed winner of those games in next Thursday’s semifinal, while second faces the highest-placed winner on Friday.
The final will be played on Saturday, August 13.
NBL standings
Nelson P 17 W 12 L 5
Taranaki P 17 W 11 L 6
Auckland P 17 W 10 L 7
Otago P 17 W 9 L 8
Wellington P 17 W 9 L 8
Hawke’s Bay P 17 W 9 L 8
Canterbury P 17 W 8 L 9
Franklin P 16 W 7 L 9
Southland P 17 W 5 L 12
Manawatu P 18 W 5 L 13
