In most North American sports, the phrase games behind or games back (often abbreviated GB) is a common way to reflect the gap between a leading team and another team in a sports league, conference, or division. Example In the below standings from the 1994 Major League Baseball season, the Atlanta Braves are six games behind the Montreal Expos. Atlanta would have to win six games, and Montreal would have to lose six games, to tie for first. The leading team is by definition zero games behind itself, and this is indicated in standings by a dash, not a zero. Computing games behind Games behind is calculated by using either of the following formulas, in which Team A is a leading team, and Team B is a trailing team. Example math in this section uses the above standings, with Montreal as Team A and Atlanta as Team B. Alternately: Notes: It can alternately be said that Montreal is six games ahead of Atlanta. A games behind situation can change rapidly when two teams contesting for the lead play each other. For example, Atlanta could cut Montreal's lead in half (to three games) by sweeping a three-game head-to-head series. The leading team, in terms of games behind, is the team with the best won–loss difference. This is not always the team with the most wins. For example, a team with an 80–70 record (10 more wins than losses) would be one game behind a team with a 79–67 record (12 more wins than losses). Anomalies A games behind calculation can be misleading when attempting to compare teams that have played an unequal number of games. This is because the games behind calculation simply computes the difference between wins and losses for each team, and then averages those two numbers. Essentially, this treats each unplayed game as being a win and a loss. In an extreme example, attempting to compare the records of the 2007 New England Patriots (16–0; 1.000 winning percentage) and the 1972 Detroit Tigers (86–70; .551 winning percentage) finds that the teams are equivalent per a games behind calculation, as each team won 16 more games than it lost. However, the Tigers played 140 more games than the Patriots. The Patriots' 140 "unplayed" games are essentially treated as 70–70; indeed, if the 16–0 Patriots had 70 more wins and 70 more losses, their 86–70 record would match that of