Nets finishing in draft lottery dead heat with 76ers becoming real possibility

The Nets’ race to the bottom of the standings — and top of the draft lottery — has been a stride-for-stride sprint against the 76ers.The teams are in a virtual tie after the Nets’ 115-112 win over the Wizards on Saturday.With the finish line mercifully in sight, it begs the question of what’s at stake for the “‘winner,” if one can use that term? And what happens if they tie?The Nets have the most assets in the June draft, four first-round picks and their own second.Even though they seem likely to make all five of those selections, the prize is their lottery pick, guaranteed when they were officially eliminated Thursday night.Brooklyn (24-51) has just seven dates left on the schedule.

They held the fifth-best odds of winning the lottery entering Saturday.Sitting 3 ¹/₂ games behind No.4 New Orleans and 3 ¹/₂ ahead of No.

7 Toronto, the Nets are vying with sixth-place Philadelphia (23-50).Of the 25 days from March 3-27, the Nets have spent 16 tied with the Sixers (and another tied with Toronto).With Philadelphia’s pick top six-protected — thus in danger of going to Oklahoma City — the 76ers have shown single-minded commitment to tanking.So if the Nets’ race with Philadelphia ends in a flat-footed draw on April 13, what does that mean for the lottery a month later?In a season all about the Nets positioning themselves for this generational draft, here is a primer about the new rules and what they mean:The NBA doesn’t use head-to-head tiebreakers for the draft.In the lottery, every team is allotted a specific number of pingpong balls determined by their record.

The league draws for the top four picks, each team’s odds of landing one of those coveted picks decided by their number of pingpong balls.Once those have been drawn, picks Nos.

5-14 are awarded by record.If the Nets and Sixers are tied for the fifth spot, there will be a random drawing days after the season finale.The winner of what essentially amounts to that coin flip wo...