Costly win over Utah Jazz drops Lakers in lottery standings
The Lakers climbed to 26 wins on Monday night, defeating the Utah Jazz, 119-104, behind a big night from Nick Young.
In beating the Jazz, the Lakers lost the chance to finish the season tied with Utah at 25 wins. The Jazz (24-57) have the fourth-worst record in the NBA.
A Lakers’ loss could have set up a three-way tie in the NBA draft lottery standings with the Jazz and Boston Celtics (25-56) -- each having a 9% chance at the top overall pick.
Instead, the Lakers have dipped down to sixth in the lottery, with a 6.3% chance at the No. 1 selection.
The Lakers still have a chance to climb into a fifth-place tie with Boston, if the Celtics win their final game of the season -- a home game against the Washington Wizards (43-38). The Lakers would also have to lose in San Antonio on Wednesday against the Spurs (62-19).
That tie would give each team about a 7.6% chance at the top pick.
Ties in the draft lottery are broken by a coin flip, establishing the order for teams that do not win the lottery, which only determines the top three selections.
After the third pick in the draft, Nos. 4-14 would fall into place by record, from worst to best, with the coin flip breaking any ties.
Presumably, the Lakers will finish the season in the sixth position with a 21.5% chance of climbing to a top-three selection, 43.9% of standing pat at six, 30.5% of dipping to seven and 4% of dropping to eight.
The Lakers would also have a 1-in-1,000 chance of falling all the way to ninth.
Underclassmen need to declare their draft intentions to the NCAA on Tuesday. The draft pool and the Lakers’ position heading into the lottery should be clear by the end of Wednesday.
Assuming the following all declare, the prospects in the Lakers’ range (including the chance the team jumps to a top-three pick) include Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, Duke’s Jabari Parker, Kentucky’s Julius Randle, Australian guard Dante Exum, Arizona’s Aaron Gordon, Indiana’s Noah Vonleh, Syracuse’s Tyler Ennis, Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart and Creighton’s Doug McDermott, among others.
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Nick Young carries Lakers to 119-104 win over Jazz
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Email Eric Pincus at eric.pincus@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @EricPincus.
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