{"id":708086,"date":"2026-04-11T10:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T10:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/708086\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T10:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T10:26:19","slug":"loss-to-orlando-magic-helps-draft-lottery-odds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/708086\/","title":{"rendered":"Loss to Orlando Magic helps draft-lottery odds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Bulls are in a tricky position.<\/p>\n<p>Everything comes down to the final game of the season. Of course, at this point, \u201ceverything\u201d for the Bulls translates to only one issue \u2014 the team\u2019s position in the final standings for draft-lottery odds.<\/p>\n<p>With Friday\u2019s 127-103 loss to the Orlando Magic at the United Center, the Bulls are now separated by one game from the Milwaukee Bucks, who beat the Brooklyn Nets. With a win or a Bucks loss Sunday, the Bulls would clinch the ninth-best odds in the draft lottery, which would afford them a 20.3% chance of landing a top-four pick.<\/p>\n<p>The only other notable occurrence in the game \u2014 in which Leonard Miller played 39 minutes and Tre Jones scored a team-high 23 points \u2014 was that star forward Matas Buzelis rolled his right ankle in the second half. The forward was able to walk to the locker room on his own. After the game, he said he did not anticipate a serious injury. Nevertheless, the tweak will end the forward\u2019s season one game early after he missed the last two games with injury.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2026\/04\/10\/photos-chicago-bulls-united-center-orlando-magic\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Photos: Orlando Magic 127, Chicago Bulls 103<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Outside of Buzelis\u2019 ankles, the main focus of the game\u2019s outcome was the big board of draft odds. Bulls fans are probably tired of worrying about the odds. That\u2019s fair. Spending the final eight weeks of the season obsessed over wins and losses is a good way to sour anyone\u2019s feelings toward a franchise. But at this point, the only outcome from these games that truly matters \u2014 outside of the enjoyment of those in attendance \u2014 is how their results influence the lottery standings for this summer\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n<p>The chasm between the ninth and 10th spots in the draft-lottery order is remarkably wide. The No. 9 spot comes with a 20.3% chance of landing a top-four pick; the 10th drops to 13.9%. The final outcome is still purely luck, but the Bulls could use as much help as possible as they attempt to kickstart a rebuild.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, the Bulls can\u2019t be faulted for wins or losses. Seven players \u2014 including starters Jalen Smith and Josh Giddey \u2014 have been shut down for the season. Two-way players Yuki Kawamura and Mac McClung are logging extensive minutes in these games. This is a skeleton crew doing its best to finish the year.<\/p>\n<p>The Bucks also play their final game Sunday, a 5 p.m. matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers. That game is less of a surefire loss now that Joel Embiid has been sidelined following an appendectomy. The Bulls are in a similarly uncertain position playing the Dallas Mavericks, one of the most aggressively tanking teams in the West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bulls are in a tricky position. Everything comes down to the final game of the season.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,329,2291,965,14489,48,973,121,6,249,47,76,3883,6277],"class_list":{"0":"post-708086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-chicago-bulls","10":"tag-jalen-smith","11":"tag-josh-giddey","12":"tag-leonard-miller","13":"tag-magic","14":"tag-matas-buzelis","15":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-draft-lottery","18":"tag-orlando","19":"tag-orlando-magic","20":"tag-orlandomagic","21":"tag-tre-jones"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116385596606878147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}