The Detroit Pistons have 24 games left, nearly 30 percent of the season left to play out. But consider their playoff hopes over after the loss to the Houston Rockets Tuesday night.

Detroit (21-37) trails Indiana (25-30) by 5.5 games for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

If the Pacers keep their current pace of winning 45.5 percent of their games they would finish 37-45.

To finish 37-45, the Pistons would have to go 16-8 in their final 24 games, a winning percentage of 66.7 percent. That’s not going to happen and even if it did there is no guarantee it would get Detroit in the playoffs. The Pistons would also have to leapfrog Charlotte and Milwaukee.

ESPN’s John Hollinger has the odds of the Pistons making the playoffs at 2.9 percent as of Tuesday night, but even that seems optimistic at this point.