Lakers fall to seventh in draft lottery as Cleveland lands first pick

The Lakers’ string of bad luck continues.

They dropped a spot in the NBA draft, from sixth to seventh, after Tuesday’s lottery provided one big winner that wasn’t them.

The Cleveland Cavaliers vaulted from the ninth pick to the top overall selection after bucking slim 1.7% chances they would get it. The Cavaliers also won the first pick in last year’s draft, taking seldom-used forward Anthony Bennett.

The Lakers got only six games out of Kobe Bryant this season and 15 from Steve Nash on the way to a 27-55 record that was the sixth-worst in the league.

They had a 6.3% chance to win the top spot Tuesday, 7.1% to take the second pick and 8.1% to win the third selection.

The Lakers had a 43.9% chance at staying at No. 6 overall, which suddenly looked good when it was revealed Cleveland jumped up from ninth.

Before the first ping-pong ball was even pulled, there was a 30.5% chance the Lakers would fall to seventh, and it happened. It could have been worse, perhaps. There was a 4% chance they could have fallen to eighth and a 0.1% chance of falling to ninth.

The Lakers can forget about taking anyone from the consensus top three at the June 26 draft: Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins of Kansas, and Duke’s Jabari Parker.

More likely, they will be studying Kentucky forward Julius Randle, Indiana forward Noah Vonleh, Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart and Arizona forward Aaron Gordon.

Australian point guard Dante Exum, who shares the same agent as Bryant, is expected to be gone before the Lakers select at the seventh spot.

Not even bobblehead dolls of Chick Hearn and Jerry Buss could help James Worthy on Tuesday. Worthy, the Lakers’ last No. 1 overall pick (in 1982), was the team’s representative at the lottery in New York.