Teams in the NBA playoff races aren’t the only ones watching scoreboards this time of year.
Take the Philadelphia 76ers, for example. The Sixers lost their first 17 games, were mathematically eliminated from the playoff race nearly a month ago and almost certainly will lose 60-plus games for the second straight season.
But GM Sam Hinkie and the rest of the Sixers’ front office are tracking the results of other games almost as closely as their own. That’s because Philadelphia could have as many as four of the top 19 picks in the NBA draft. Or as few as one.
Right now, the Sixers are – or should be – rooting for the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder to win as many games as possible. Sunday was a pretty good day as the Heat and Thunder won but the Lakers lost.
The Sixers also are – or should be – rooting for the Orlando Magic, Washington Wizards, Toronto Raptors and every team in the chase at the bottom of the East bracket other than Miami to lose. In that regard, Sunday wasn’t great as Washington and Boston lost but Brooklyn and Indiana won.
The Sixers have the greatest vested interest in the outcomes of other games, but they are not the only team. Contenders such as the Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets – currently second and third, respectively, in the overall standings – also are scoreboard-watching as they could wind up with lottery picks.
Below is a look at the 2015 first-round picks that have a realistic chance of changing hands. We did not include picks that would require axis-tilting events, such as Chicago getting Sacramento’s pick (the Kings are sixth and the pick has 1-10 protection) or Boston getting Dallas’ pick (the Mavs would have to miss the playoffs).
The Sixers could get the Lakers’ first-round pick. The was the pick the Phoenix Suns squeezed out of the Lakers for Steve Nash, then put into the three-team deal with Philadelphia and Milwaukee that landed Brandon Knight. Some time after the deal, Suns GM Ryan McDonough told Grantland, “Everybody loves the LA pick. The concept of a pick is great, but it’s more of a sure thing to get a 23-year-old who is a borderline All-Star in the East.” That is technically true, because the pick has 1-5 protection, and the Lakers currently have the fourth-worst record with one loss more than Orlando (and two games in hand).
Eminently winnable games on LA’s remaining schedule include tonight at Philadelphia (ooh, the intrigue), April 8 at Denver, April 10 vs. Minnesota and a season-ending home-and-home with Sacramento. Orlando’s schedule looks a bit tougher, with winnable games Friday at Minnesota and April 11 vs. New York.
The pick would still fall within the protection range even if the Magic “overtake” the Lakers. However, the pick’s assignment is not determined until after the lottery. If the Lakers are sitting fifth, there is a strong chance they could get bumped to sixth by a team jumping into the top three picks from outside the top four, which has happened seven times in the last 10 years. If the Lakers keep the pick, it shifts to next year with 1-3 protection but won’t be nearly as valuable when you factor in the returns of Kobe Bryant and Julius Randle, the anticipated addition of a top-flight free agent and the stud the Lakers select with the pick. The pick will never have more value than this year.
The Rockets likely get the Pelicans’ first-round pick. This was part of last summer’s Omer Asik deal, when Rockets
GM Daryl Morey was clearing all sorts of cap space to sign Chris Bosh while keeping Chandler Parsons. Neither of those things happened, and Morey still somehow won the deal. The pick has protection from 1-3 and 20-30, so it is possible that the Pelicans can keep it – if they buck the 5-in-1,000 odds of being the last lottery team. Oh, and Asik is a free agent who will be looking for an eight-figure deal.
15. The Hawks will swap first-round picks with the Nets. When we first looked at this pick over the weekend, it was a lottery selection. And before the dust settles on April 15, it could be. Such is life in the Eastern Conference, where the playoff picture changes at about the same rate as the weather in San Francisco.
The pick was part of the Joe Johnson deal in 2012. by now, it was supposed to be the Nets contending for championships and the Hawks fighting to get out of the lottery. Instead, Atlanta will add a top young talent to a 60-win team and still has an outside chance at a franchise player if Brooklyn misses the playoffs, then defies the odds and vaults into one of the top three picks. The Nets likely will pick no higher than 29th.
16. The Sixers likely get the Heat’s first-round pick. This actually was part of the sign-and-trade when LeBron James took his talents to South Beach. Miami’s pick went to Cleveland, which rerouted it to Philadelphia through Minnesota in the Kevin Love deal. The pick has 1-10 protection, and – although unlikely – it is not out of the realm of possibility that it could stay with Miami. With a late-season collapse, the Heat could conceivably fall behind two lottery teams from the East plus at least two lottery teams from the West, “elevating” them to the 10th slot and then sweating out the lottery.
19. The Sixers could get the Thunder’s first-round pick. This is another pick that changes almost daily and has changed hands three times this season. Oklahoma City sent it to Cleveland for Dion Waiters, Cleveland sent it to Denver for Timofey Mozgov and Denver sent it to Philadelphia with JaVale McGee. The Thunder began Sunday sitting 18th but moved to 19th – and out of the pick’s 1-18 protection range – when Washington lost and they won.
The Thunder (42-32) have a rough schedule remaining – especially this week – but have won five of their last seven and play five of their final eight games at home. The Wizards (41-33) have the Sixers twice and the Knicks among their remaining eight games, but five are on the road and they are totally discombobulated, losing five of their last six. Also in the picture is Toronto (43-30), which sits 20th but plays six of its last nine on the road and is in a 6-13 freefall since Feb. 20.
26. The Celtics get the Clippers’ first-round pick. This was for Doc Rivers and assures that Boston will have at least two first-round selections. This is also the reason why folks think so highly of Danny Ainge as a GM. The Knicks couldn’t get a first-round pick for the Defensive Player of the Year of the Sixth Man Award winner. Ainge got one for a coach.
27. The Lakers get the Rockets’ first-round pick. This was part of taking on Jeremy Lin’s contract last summer, when Houston was trying to clear cap space. If this is the Lakers’ only first-round pick, the rebuilding plan is off to a slow start.
TRIVIA: Who are the only two franchises never to win a division title? Answer below.
THE END OF CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT: Four men from the Atlanta area reportedly were arrested last week after stealing nearly $4.4 million from the Bank of New York Mellon through electronic fraud in 2009 and spending it on luxury vehicles and a suite at Philips Arena for Hawks games.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez, after throwing away an inbounds pass with 3.2 seconds left 
and his team leading Charlotte by three points:
“It might have looked like I was point shaving, like I made a call to my Uncle Huey in Vegas.”
TANKS A LOT!: In Monday’s game at Utah, the Timberwolves used a league season-low seven players – five rookies, second-year center Gorgui Dieng and greybeard forward Chase Budinger, a six-year veteran whose 330 career games were 26 more than the combined total of his teammates. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, during the telecast, Jazz announcers suggested the Timberwolves were intentionally weakening their roster to lose games and improve their draft position, which sounded pretty dumb when shorthanded Minnesota pulled out an overtime win. “That’s totally irresponsible; we’re not tanking games,” Wolves coach Flip Saunders said afterward. “If that’s so, then they got beat by a team who was tanking.”
LINE OF THE WEEK: James Harden, Houston at Indiana, March 23: 43 minutes, 10-21 FGs, 3-8 3-pointers, 21-22 FTs, four rebounds, seven assists, two blocks, two steals, four turnovers, 44 points in a 110-100 win. It was the eighth 40-point game this season for Harden and second against the normally stout defense of the Pacers. Six players in NBA history have scored 40-plus points twice in a season against Indiana, but Harden is the only one from a team in the West and only gets two cracks at it.
LINE OF THE WEAK: Zach Randolph, Memphis vs. Cleveland, March 25: 20 minutes, 2-8 FGs, 0-1 3-pointers, 1-2 FTs, three rebounds, one assist, zero steals, zero blocks, five points in a 111-89 loss. It was a season low in points and one off a 
season low in rebounds for Randolph, who also was lit up for 22 points and 10 boards by Kevin Love.
TRILLION WATCH: A strange entry crashed the season leaderboard this week as Kings forward Reggie Evans – usually good for a rebound or a foul no matter how little he plays – registered a 5 trillion Friday at New Orleans. Honorable mention for the 4 trillion posted by Grizzlies forward Jon Leuer on Wednesday vs. Cleveland and the 3 trillions from Wizards forward Rasual Butler on Monday at Golden State and Bulls rookie Cameron Bairstow on Saturday vs. New York.
GAME OF THE WEEK: Boston at Charlotte, March 30. There are five teams still in the hunt for the final two playoff spots in the East, and they are separated by just 2 1/2 games. So who cares if they are all under .500? Celtics-Hornets starts a week-long round-robin that includes Indiana-Brooklyn on Tuesday, Indiana-Boston on Wednesday, Charlotte-Indiana on Friday and Miami-Indiana on Sunday.
GAME OF THE WEAK: LA Lakers at Philadelphia, March 30. When you look up tanking in the dictionary, there will be a picture of the opening tip of this game. The Lakers likely will start two rookies and a second-year player. The Sixers likely will start three rookies and a second-year player. As explained above, both teams are helped considerably by losing this game.
TWO MINUTES: Before Friday’s home game, the Magic made eternal peace with Shaquille O’Neal, inducting their first true star into the team’s Hall of Fame. The top pick in the 1992 draft, O’Neal played his first four years in Orlando before leaving for the Lakers via free agency, amassing three 50-win seasons and one trip to the NBA Finals. The visiting coach Friday was Detroit’s Stan Van Gundy, who guided the Magic to four 50-win seasons and one trip to the NBA Finals in five years. Could Van Gundy become a member of the Magic’s Hall of Fame? “No chance, absolutely no chance,” said Van Gundy, who had a falling out with superstar Dwight Howard and ownership that led to his exit in 2012. “The way things went down at the end … I guess if it were a whole new group of people here, but not with the current group. That ain’t happening.” … After Sunday’s home loss to Houston, Wizards coach Randy Wittman was utterly perplexed by the lack of focus from some of his players. “We were running things that I had never seen before,” he said bluntly. Star point guard John Wall agreed, adding that some of his teammates were “not listening to what the plays are, people forgetting the plays. … We had careless turnovers coming out of timeouts when we thought people knew the plays and they didn’t.” Wow. … Think the Hawks might want the Heat to finish eighth in the East? Atlanta swept the four-game season series, averaging 104.5 points and 28.0 assists while shooting 51 percent overall and better than 40 percent from the arc. Miami managed 95.5 points. … Much has been made of Russell Westbrook’s MVP campaign and trade acquisition Enes Kanter becoming a double-double machine, but the Thunder also are getting a huge boost from Anthony Morrow. The sharpshooter has scored in double figures in 10 of his last 11 games, 
averaging 14.3 points while shooting a blistering 56.2 percent both overall and from the arc. “He does a good job of finding the gaps and finding the openings so Russell, D.J. (Augustin) and our attackers can find him and our bigs can kick him out for threes and he is making them,” coach Scott Brooks said. “He is on a nice 3-point shooting streak right now. He has to keep taking time when he is open and keep competing on the defensive end, but he is on a nice little roll for us right now.” … Believe it or not, Kobe Bryant – who has not played since Jan. 21 – still led the Lakers in shots attempted with 713 until Sunday, when Jordan Hill returned from injury and put up 17 to run his season total to 719. … Saturday’s loss at Charlotte was Atlanta’s first in nine games this season with Dennis Schroder in the starting lineup. The second-year point guard from Germany is averaging 14.1 points and 8.2 assists as a starter. … When the Suns miss the playoffs – they are done after blowing a 20-point lead in Sunday’s home loss to the Thunder – they will rue going 1-3 against the Kings and losing to a different coach each time. It was Mike Malone on Nov. 7, Ty Corbin on Feb. 8 and George Karl on Wednesday. … Unless the Spurs figure out a way to overtake both the Grizzlies and the Rockets, the only repeat division winner this season will be the Raptors, who clinched the Atlantic on Friday. “Last year was so unexpected,” guard DeMar DeRozan said. “We never looked at it as ‘We can win our division.’ All the odds were against us. This time around, the start that we had … we kind of were expected to win it.” Toronto won 21 of its first 27 games but has lost 13 of its last 19 and is in danger of starting the playoffs on the road despite its division title. … Here’s Hornets 32-year-old guard Mo Williams on Wizards 24-year-old All-Star speedster John Wall: “I love playing against him. Obviously, I wish I was a few years younger.”
Trivia Answer: Memphis and Charlotte. … Happy 65th Birthday, LaRue Martin. … It’s good to see Charles Barkley following college basketball with the same inattention that he gives the NBA.
Chris Bernucca is the managing editor of SheridanHoops.com. His columns appear Monday during the season. You can follow him on Twitter.