76ers Cement Fifth-Worst Record in NBA
The Philadelphia 76ers snapped a 12-game losing skid last night with a 122-103 victory over the Washington Wizards behind a 30-point performance from Jeff Dowtin. With Philadelphia’s tank continuing to roll, the win could’ve been costly, but thanks to a 119-114 Brooklyn Nets win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night, the 76ers have essentially locked up the fifth-worst record in the NBA. This is crucial for the franchise’s lottery chances to keep its 2025 first-round pick, which is top-six protected. With two games left to go in the regular season, Philadelphia sits with a 24-56 record, and Brooklyn sits at 26-53 with three games to go.
There was potential for Philadelphia to even surpass the New Orleans Pelicans for the fourth-worst record in the NBA to increase its lottery chances even more, but that’s looking unlikely after the Sixers’ win last night. New Orleans is 21-58 with three games to go in its regular season schedule. So now that Philadelphia knows what its lottery chances will be, let’s break them down. Philadelphia will have a 10.5% chance to earn the first, second, or fourth overall pick. It will then have a 10.6% chance to land the third overall pick, a 19.6% chance to earn the sixth overall pick, and a 26.7% chance to earn the seventh overall pick. Keep in mind that the pick must land within the top six, or else the 76ers’ don’t keep it. If it falls outside of the top six, the pick goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The 2024-25 season for the 76ers probably couldn’t have gone any worse. Daryl Morey and the rest of the front office eventually bought into the tank after making moves at the deadline to make a Play-In push, but those days are long gone. Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George were all ruled out for a good part of the second half of the regular season with the team’s tanking efforts at full force, and the Sixers continued to mix and match guys to put on the floor each night. Now, the only way to possibly make this season worse is if the lottery goes as bad as it could for Philly, keeping its first-round pick out of the top six so the franchise wouldn’t even have a first-round selection despite such a horrendous campaign. Philadelphia now looks to close out the last couple games of the regular season and wait for the NBA Draft Lottery in anticipation, which takes place on May 12th.
