• Going Green
The Austin Toros will be wearing green uniforms when they take on the Texas Legends at home in their last regular season game on Saturday. The green initiative is sponsored by Texas Gas Service and Well Home. After the game, the jerseys will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to Meals on Wheels among other charities.
• Race for the 8th seed
The Toros are currently eight in the Western Conference and are one of four teams vying for a playoff spot with less than a handful of games remaining.
They are still behind the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Texas Legends and Idaho Stampede, but there’s about a game and a half separating all four teams. If the Toros had won against the Stampede on Saturday, followed by their victory on Sunday, they could have leapfrogged the Stampede. They can do the same against the Texas Legends if they win both their games on Thursday and Saturday.
The Toros, who were just assigned Da’Sean Butler from the Spurs, are well aware of the importance of their last three games. Michael Joiner recently told me that the team has a whiteboard in their locker room with all of the seeds and where they stand, so you can expect that they’ll be playing with some extra motivation to close out the regular season.
The biggest challenge will be overcoming Fort Wayne’s lead, especially considering they have only two games remaining on their schedule and both are against sub .500 teams.
For more on the chase for the playoffs, check out the breakdown from Matt Hubert at D-League Digest.
