Using my best Jim Mora voice..... "Playoffs??" "We're just trying to win a game and your talking about Playoffs??"......
Not exactly. The two conference leaders get automatic berths and then it's the 6 teams with highest points.
Actually, it is the top 8 teams regardless of what conference they play in. Conference winners are within the top 8 inherently. (The lowest a conference winner can be is 6th place overall.) The only thing winning the conference does is give you the top seed.
The odds of missing the playoffs each of the last 3 seasons is 1 in 45. It looks like we're going to achieve this unlikely longshot.