Raptors Heavy Underdogs with Lottery Odds on the Line

The Toronto Raptors are doing everything they can to make sure they clinch the seventh-best lottery odds Thursday night against the Chicago Bulls

Aaron Rose | May 13, 2021

Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

The play-in tournament might be out of the picture now, but the Toronto Raptors still have something to play for Thursday night against the Chicago Bulls.

A loss to Chicago would clinch Toronto the seventh-best lottery odds and a 31.9% chance of landing a top-four pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.

At this point, it would take a miracle for the Bulls to overtake the Raptors in the lottery standings. Right now Chicago is still fighting for a spot in the play-in tournament, as unlikely as that may be. It's a bit of a strange spot for the Bulls to be in considering they traded away their first-round pick this season for Nikola Vucevic and are now on the outside of the playoff picture. Nonetheless, they'd need to lose to Toronto and have the tanking Raptors lose their final two games to swing the lottery odds.

That's extremely unlikely to happen, especially considering the Raptors are +9.5-point underdogs to Chicago, according to Covers. Toronto will be without Kyle Lowry, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, Chris Boucher, Aron Baynes, Rodney Hood, and Paul Watson Jr. Conversely, the Bulls have yet to rule anyone out for the game. They have merely listed Daniel Theis, Troy Brown Jr., and Thomas Satoransky as questionable.

Hopefully, the Raptors will lose Thursday night and the organization can give Lowry the sendoff he deserves in the final two games of the year.

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