Tanking

I took a peek at the Bulls-Celtics’ game just before halftime last night, and hats off to Arturas Karnisovas, whose tank job is working according to plan. Karnisovas’s newly reconstructed team headed into the locker room trailing 72-44. Final score, Boston 124 Chicago 105. This gives Karnisovas just what he wants, a losing streak. Right now, it stands at six, four since the tanking decision was made. One problem, though. In all likelihood, it’s come too late. As late as January 31, the Bulls were within one game of .500, with a whole lot of other teams already in tank-mode. Right now, the Bulls’ record stands at 24-31, way too good to give them anything more than a Hail Mary of a chance to net the top choice in the draft. Why? Because there are five teams with fifteen or fewer wins and another two with nineteen or fewer. In all, nine teams have worse records than the Bulls. How many of them do you think will try to put together a win streak that hurts their draft chances? I mean, other than the Bulls?