Lottery remains possible for play-in Heat . . . currently with 1% chance at No. 1
CHARLOTTE — Even with a singular goal of getting a victory Tuesday night at Spectrum Center against the Charlotte Hornets to extend their season, dual realities remain for the Miami Heat. In that regard, a fourth consecutive trip to the NBA play-in round changes nothing in the short term for Erik Spoelstra’s team. It still can be playoffs .
. . or lottery.
Win Tuesday against the Hornets and then Friday on the road against the loser of Wednesday night’s game between the Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers, and it’s off to the playoffs for a franchise-record seventh consecutive season. Lose either game and it’s into the lottery for the first time since Tyler Herro was selected at No. 13 in 2019.
As it is, the lottery will remain in flux through the end of this week, with the play-in round impacting those odds and determining the last of the lottery participants. For now, the Heat stand as the No. 13 seed of the fourteen lottery seeds, meaning a 1% chance of landing the top pick and a 4.
8% chance of landing one of the first four picks. Only the top four picks in the June draft are determined by the random-but-weighted drawing, with the remaining picks in the first round determined by inverse order of finish. However, the lottery only includes the teams that fail to advance to the best-of-seven first-round of the playoffs, meaning lottery position will remain fluid through Friday’s close of the play-in tournament.
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