Both the Orlando Magic and Oklahoma City Thunder have been eliminated from playoff contention.
But there’s still plenty at stake when the pair meet on Wednesday in Oklahoma City.
The teams are separated by just a half-game for one of the bottom three spots in the NBA standings.
The bottom three teams in the league will each have a 14% chance of winning the NBA draft lottery.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said any talk of tanking for a better draft pick hadn’t affected the players on the court.
“I give our team a lot of credit, because I think our players, our staff have done a great job over the years — not just this circumstance — of just keeping our locker room our space, where we have our mindset, where we work on our fundamentals, our habits and we hone our mentality, and not get distracted by anything outside of that,” said Daigneault.
The Magic (20-53) have won back-to-back games, starting with Sunday’s 90-85 home win over the Thunder in the teams’ first meeting of the season.
“I…