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The Oklahoma City Thunder “came back” from a 14-point lead to lose to the Sacramento Kings 122-106 on Tuesday.
With the loss, they regained sole possession of the third-best odds in the NBA draft lottery. Prior to the game, they had been tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic.
The Thunder, Cavaliers, Magic, Minnesota Timberwolves and Detroit Pistons are fighting it out for a top-three lottery spot. Those placements in the lottery have the same odds of landing the No. 1 pick in the draft.
Here’s how the teams’ recent games went:
Thunder: Oklahoma City took back the third spot with the loss to the Kings.
Cavaliers: On Monday, Cleveland fell to the Indiana Pacers 111-102. The Cavaliers led by seven at halftime and were tied midway through the fourth before eventually falling. Their loss briefly tied them with the Thunder in the reverse standings.
Magic: After losing to the Timberwolves on Sunday, Orlando was beat by the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 27 points, 12 rebounds and five assists to lead the Bucks to a comfortable 114-102 win.
This loss allowed the Magic to keep pace with the Cavaliers in the lottery odds.
Pistons vs. Timberwolves: The Timberwolves have done an excellent job beating awful competition as of late. On Tuesday, they took down Detroit 119-110 to move to 8-5 over their last 13 games.
That’s far too good to properly tank. Minnesota now has the sixth-best odds and is 1.5 games below the Thunder.
The Pistons, meanwhile, kept their distance from the group chasing them for the second-best odds.
Here is a rundown relative to the Thunder:
- Second-best odds: Detroit Pistons, 1.0 games ahead of OKC
- Third-best odds: Oklahoma City Thunder
- Tied fourth-best odds: Cleveland Cavaliers, 0.5 games behind OKC
- Tied fourth-best odds: Orlando Magic, 0.5 games behind OKC
- Sixth-best odds: Minnesota Timberwolves, 1.5 games behind OKC.
The Thunder have two more games left this season: They will play the Utah Jazz on Friday and the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday.