Losing teams hope to become winners in NBA lottery

The Celtics were one of the devastated teams last year, when they had the second-best chance of landing a top-two pick and instead tumbled all the way to fifth. Boston then packaged that pick in a trade with Seattle to acquire Ray Allen, and later pried Kevin Garnett from Minnesota in another deal.

The Celtics will be hosting Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals a few minutes after the lottery finishes, so perhaps the Heat or Sonics shouldn't despair if the balls don't bounce their way.

"If it's not No. 1 or No. 2, the balls fall as they may, the chips fall as they may," Wade said. "We've just got to make the best choice that we can make. Whether it's keeping the pick, trading the pick, whatever we're doing, we've just got to make the best choice for the team that we have and the faces of the team that we have ... bringing the right guy in, that's what it's all about."

New York has the fifth-best chance at No. 1, with the Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Chicago and New Jersey rounding out the top 10. Indiana, Sacramento, Portland and Golden State -- which missed the playoffs in the powerful Western Conference despite a 48-34 record -- are the four biggest long shots.

The Knicks can do no worse than eighth, still an improvement after losing what would have been the Nos. 2 and 9 choices the last two years. That's little reassurance to Walsh, hoping to quickly jump-start the rebuilding in New York.

"I'm not comfortable at all. I want to win it. I really want to win it," Walsh said. "There's good talent, one through eight. Obviously one is going to be better than eight."