Wizards snap 16-Game losing streak with win over Jazz in Utah

Having already been eliminated from playoff contention, the most important element remaining for the Jazz this season is their 2026 first-round draft pick.

The Jazz’s pick has become one of the most closely watched assets in the NBA in recent years due to the first-round protections on the selection that could see it land with the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

This year, if the pick lands between Nos. 9 and 30, it goes to the Thunder. If it falls between Nos. 1 and 8, it remains with Utah.

The Jazz likely will not know whether they will keep the pick until the lottery balls determine their fate on May 11, but Wednesday’s loss to the Wizards could go a long way toward securing the selection.

After playing Washington, the Jazz have the most difficult schedule remaining in the NBA, including seven games against teams competing for playoff positioning.

The Jazz officially have the toughest remaining schedule in the NBA with 9 games left to play, per @tankathon.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) March 26, 2026

Later this week, the Jazz will open a two-game road trip in Denver before traveling to play Phoenix. They will then return home to face the Cavaliers and Nuggets, followed by a three-game road trip with stops in Houston, Oklahoma City, and New Orleans.

The Jazz will play their final home game of the season against the Memphis Grizzlies before closing the season in Los Angeles against the Lakers.

Of those games, only the Grizzlies have an incentive to lose.

With nine games left to play, Utah currently sits two wins behind the Dallas Mavericks. If the Jazz were to overtake them in the standings before the end of the season, they would be six times more likely to lose the pick.

Owning the fifth-worst record in the NBA, the Jazz have just a 0.6 percent chance of slipping to the ninth spot in the draft lottery and conveying their lottery selection to Oklahoma City.

There’s an argument this is the last full “tank” game of the 4-year Jazz rebuild.

You’ll keep seeing this rotation, but the Jazz are only going to be favored in 1 more game this season against MEM, and sitting 2 games back of Dallas, they can probably win that if they want.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) March 26, 2026

If they were to finish with the sixth-worst record, their odds of losing the pick would rise to 3.8 percent.

While those odds still strongly favor the Jazz, the unpredictability of the NBA lottery would leave the door open.

The Mavericks, after all, won the lottery last season with just a 1.8 percent chance of jumping to the No. 1 overall pick, and the Atlanta Hawks secured the top selection in 2024 with only a 3.0 percent chance.

Put more plainly, if the current standings hold, the Jazz have roughly a 1-in-175 chance of losing the pick.

If they were to finish ahead of Dallas in the standings, that risk would increase to about 1 in 28.

There’s an argument this is the last full “tank” game of the 4-year Jazz rebuild.

You’ll keep seeing this rotation, but the Jazz are only going to be favored in 1 more game this season against MEM, and sitting 2 games back of Dallas, they can probably win that if they want.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) March 26, 2026

There is also a remote scenario in which the Jazz could be guaranteed to keep the pick if one of the teams behind them in the standings passes them before the season ends.

The Sacramento Kings, for example, have a far easier remaining schedule and sit just two wins behind Utah in the standings.

However, like the Jazz, the Kings have little incentive to damage their own lottery odds and are unlikely to seek unnecessary wins to close the season.