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The Bulls, Raptors, and Wizards are contesting the saddest 'race' ever

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This can't be what the NBA had in mind.

Sure, the possibility of artificially elevating bad teams - especially in the Eastern Conference - loomed once the NBA announced the ninth- and 10th-placed clubs in each conference would get a crack at earning a playoff spot through play-in games. But what's transpired in the East this season is embarrassing.

With just over three weeks remaining in a 72-game season, the chase for the East's 10th spot has devolved into a snail's-paced race for 30 wins - perhaps 31 or 32 if one of the teams catches its own mediocre version of a heater.

With all due respect to the Cavaliers, this is a three-team race between the Wizards, Raptors, and Bulls. They're separated by a half-game in the standings with only 13 or 14 games to go.

So how did Washington, Toronto, and Chicago get here? How will they fare as potential play-in contenders? And where does each team go from here?

Wizards (25-33)

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The Wizards have won 43% of their games and own a worse point differential than the 18-41 Pistons, yet they currently lead this race after six straight wins. The latest victory came Wednesday night when Washington rallied past the Warriors in the fourth quarter.

Such is the state of the Eastern Conference, and such is the power of Russell Westbrook.

Say what you will about Westbrook's efficiency, offensive discipline, and defensive deference, but the man is a delightfully competitive maniac and that makes him the ultimate floor-raiser. The Wizards have received the full Westbrook experience this season. At times, when Bradley Beal is out of the lineup, he has propped up a comically overmatched team of misfits. Other times, even with Beal in the lineup, Westbrook shot the Wizards out of games he had kept them in.

Beal himself is averaging an East-leading 31.1 points per game, and the Wizards have won the last nine games he's appeared in. Their record is nearly .500 (24-25) when Beal has suited up. But the story of Washington's midseason turnaround is the story of Westbrook.

For the second year in a row, Westbrook seemed downright washed to open the campaign, only to look like an All-NBA-caliber guard again as the season progressed.

Unlike last year in Houston, however, Westbrook's midseason resurgence can't be explained by improved shot selection or small ball. If you dig into Westbrook's numbers since he began to turn his season around Feb. 20, you'll find it's tough to explain what's happening.

He's averaging nearly four extra minutes per game and has had to play without Beal more often, but his usage rate is nearly unchanged. His drives and advanced assist metrics are only up slightly while his turnover ratio is only down slightly, and his shooting efficiency has merely improved from awful to slightly below average.

But if you've watched the Wizards over the last couple of months, you see it. Something's just different about Russ, and he's keeping the Wizards afloat through sheer force of will.

Rui Hachimura and rookie Deni Avdija - whose season has been cut short by a fractured ankle - have provided moments of promise, but little else about this Westbrook-led run tells us much about Washington's future. This is a team for which Robin Lopez is the only player to suit up every game; a team reliant on getting good minutes from Raul Neto and Alex Len, and on the shooting of Davis Bertans and Garrison Mathews.

It seems like the most Wizards thing ever to chase 10th place and a play-in tournament, just for the ultimate prize of earning a first-round matchup with the East's top seed. But what choice has Westbrook's indomitable will left them? Washington's too far ahead to truly tank now, and Beal - a potential 2022 free agent - deserves to play some meaningful basketball down the stretch.

Only five of Washington's final 14 games come against winning teams, so chasing down the ninth-place Pacers and hosting a play-in game isn't out of the question. A May 6 matchup with Toronto - which has already secured the tiebreaker over the Wizards thanks to a Gary Trent Jr. buzzer-beater - also looms large.

Raptors (25-34)

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Playing for 10th place is as unfamiliar to the Raptors as their temporary Tampa home. Toronto's made seven straight playoff appearances, has won at least one series in each of the last five seasons, and is only a couple of years removed from a championship. At full health, the team clearly doesn't belong in a conversation with the Wizards and Bulls, but the displaced Raptors have been battered by injuries and COVID-19. In Wednesday's victory over the Nets, coach Nick Nurse used his 28th different starting lineup, tying a franchise record.

This season from hell could've been the type of unexpected blip that extends a perennial winner's window of future contention given the potential franchise-changers expected to be available in the top five of this summer's draft, and the promise that comes with having Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, and OG Anunoby under long-term team control (plus the trade-deadline addition of Trent, a pending restricted free agent).

Given Masai Ujiri's aversion to getting stuck in the middle, it's not a stretch to imagine the organization would've welcomed plummeting down the standings once the season went off the rails.

Instead, the backward way Toronto has remained in the playoff race offers another reminder to never underestimate the ineptitude of the East's bottom half.

After falling out of the East's top 10 with a March 14 loss to the Bulls, the Raptors proceeded to lose 12 of their next 17 games between March 15-April 15 without dropping out of 11th place. By the time they beat the Magic on April 16, the Raptors somehow found themselves back in 10th.

So a decimated Raptors team - resting its stars to the point the NBA fined them for violating league rules that govern rest and injury reporting - went 6-12 over a five-week span … and moved up the standings.

On Sunday against the Thunder, the Raptors' crunch-time lineup consisted of rookie Malachi Flynn, Yuta Watanabe, and Freddie Gillespie supporting Chris Boucher and Trent … and they won because that was somehow a better quintet than the tanking Oklahoma City could muster.

On Wednesday, Kyle Lowry, Siakam, VanVleet, and Anunoby all returned to the lineup to beat the shorthanded Nets.

Had the Bulls shown any semblance of competence during the month Toronto was on the ropes, the Raptors would be out of their 2020-21 misery and the tank would've been on - intentional or not. But with Chicago tripping over itself and no other cellar-dweller cooperating, Toronto survived long enough to get its core players back. Provided those players remain healthy, the Raptors should now be considered favorites in this depressing race.

If nothing else, that should make the East's seventh- to ninth-placed teams nervous and could make this year's one-versus-eight matchup a lot more eventful than anyone anticipated.

Bulls (24-34)

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The Bulls haven't made the playoffs in four years, but they entered the shortened 2020-21 season with measured optimism thanks to the presence of Zach LaVine and an intriguing blend of young talent and veteran know-how. It was also the first full season for a revamped front office now led by Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley, and Billy Donovan's first season as the team's head coach.

LaVine took his game to the next level and earned his first career All-Star selection, but the Bulls struggled to get off the ground, creating an interesting dilemma. On one hand, they had a budding star entering his prime who was surrounded by young talent. If the team slid back into the lottery, they could consider it a roundabout route to continue building for the future. On the other hand, that budding star is just over a year away from unrestricted free agency, and given that he's yet to play a postseason game in his seven-year career, LaVine could be considered a 2022 flight risk if Chicago doesn't get its act together.

The Bulls leaned more toward the latter approach and overestimated how close the team was to being competitive. That's the only way to explain the fact that they traded two first-round draft picks, Wendell Carter Jr., and Otto Porter's expiring contract to Orlando for Nikola Vucevic.

Vucevic is a fine player. He's a tremendously skilled and productive big man who could serve as the finishing touch for a contender that's one piece away. But the Bulls are not that team, and while Vucevic and LaVine are both individually impressive, Chicago mortgaged far too much of its future to create the least threatening All-Star duo in recent memory.

In the four weeks since that deadline gamble, the Bulls have gone 5-10, dropped a game to the tanking Magic (with Carter taking a leading role), and were outscored by 12.3 points per 100 possessions in the 245 minutes Vucevic and LaVine shared the floor. To put that number in perspective, the last-place Rockets are being outscored by an average of 6.8 points per 100 possessions overall. Making matters worse, LaVine is sidelined indefinitely by COVID-related protocols.

Given the price paid for Vucevic and the fact that Chicago's out a (top-four-protected) 2021 first-rounder, the Bulls have the most to lose by falling short. They're also in the worst position of the three teams, with or without LaVine. Twelve of Chicago's final 14 games are against teams currently occupying playoff spots, and one of its other two contests is against Toronto.

Looking beyond the stretch run, the Bulls are unlikely to be a major player in free agency this summer (unless they want to waive the non-guaranteed contracts of Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky and renounce Lauri Markkanen), and they can't trade another first-rounder until 2025. This is suddenly a franchise in win-now mode, except without the requisite talent to do so or the assets needed to improve.

If the ultimate goal is retaining LaVine long term and adding another impact player to the LaVine-Vucevic duo, the last month has done little to help the Bulls move closer to that goal. The next month isn't shaping up any better.

Joseph Casciaro is theScore's senior basketball writer.

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