The Toronto Raptors now have a lead.
It wasn’t how anyone would have hoped this season would go, but nine straight losses seem to be helping the Raptors these days. The team has now fallen to the bottom six of the NBA standings, a half-game below the Memphis Grizzlies for the sixth-worst record in the NBA.
It was a Grizzlies win over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night that gave Toronto sole possession of the spot after the two teams traded back and forth over the past week.
If the rankings remain like this, Toronto will have a 46% chance of retaining their first protected top-six pick, owed to the Spurs. Those odds drop to 32% if the Raptors finish the season as the seventh-worst team in the league.
Toronto has a slightly easier schedule over the final 12 games with four games scheduled against the Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets. That said, the Raptors find themselves as +5.5 point underdogs on the road against the Wizards on Saturday night.
Memphis will only play three more games against the worst teams in the league, two against Detroit and one more against San Antonio.
The Raptors are four games behind the Portland Trail Blazers for the fifth-worst record in the NBA. It’s a margin that Toronto will probably not be able to fill with less than a month to go until the end of the season.
Toronto is three games ahead of the Brooklyn Nets, who currently sit in eighth place in the reverse rankings with a 26.3% chance of finishing in the top four.
