Tonight, at Disney/ABC’s Times Square Studios in New York City, the 76ers will discover their draft-night fate. They'll know the draft slot for their pick and New Orleans', and whether the Pelicans retain their selection or owe it to the Sixers as compensation for a trade last summer.

The Sixers find themselves pinning their hopes on the ping-pong balls of the NBA’s Draft lottery for the 13^th time in its 30 years of existence. Here’s a look at the mathematical odds for the Sixers’ pick in relation to particular slots in the draft:

(AP)

No. 1 … 19.9 percent

No. 2 … 18.8

No. 3 … 17.1

No. 4 … 31.9

No. 5 … 12.3

In addition to their lottery selection, the Sixers hold the rights to New Orleans’ first-round pick – assuming the Pelicans don’t win the lottery and land anywhere in the top 3. Here’s a breakdown of the Pelicans’ statistical odds in the lottery:

No. 1 … 1.1 percent

No. 2 … 1.3

No. 3 … 1.6

No. 10 … 87.0

No. 11 … 8.9

No. 12 … 0.2

No. 13 … 0.1

Other notes on the NBA Draft lottery:

• The Sixers hold potentially two lottery selections: theirs and New Orleans’. The Pelicans’ pick is top-five protected, so if they “win the lottery” and land in one of the top-three picks, they would retain it. The Sixers would be owed a top-five protected, first-round selection for the 2015 draft as future compensation.
• The Sixers’ draft-lottery representative will be Julius Erving. Last year, it was majority owner Joshua Harris.
• As the Sixers’ good luck charm, Dr. J will bring with him shards of glass from a backboard broken by Darryl Dawkins during a Dec. 5, 1979 game against San Antonio. Cherry Hill native Jake Spencer, the holder of the glass bits, had his entry selected during a team contest in conjunction with 97.5 FM The Fanatic.
• Only four times has the team with the league’s second-worst record won the lottery. The last occurrence was in 2009, with the Los Angeles Clippers. The Sixers finished with the league’s next-to-last mark, at 19-63.
• Only once have the Sixers won the lottery. That was in 1996, when they moved from No. 2 to No. 1 and selected Allen Iverson.

(AP)

The 76ers had the emotional edge. They had more than 20,000 fans behind them. And they lost.

For the 13^th straight time out, the Sixers lost. This one, Saturday’s 122-103 defeat at the hands of Washington, left the Sixers winless on their five-game homestand, their longest of the season. They haven’t won since Jan. 29 at Boston, and are 0-4 since the trade deadline.

The Sixers (15-44) had a packed Wells Fargo Center at their disposal against the Wizards, with 20,856 fans selling out the building for the first time this season to see the jersey retirement of Allen Iverson. It still wasn’t enough to keep the Sixers from losing for the 23^rd time in their last 26 games.

With 23 games left, the Sixers’ skid begs the question, ‘Will they win again this season?’

(AP)

“This is the truth: if we don’t play better transition defense, and we don’t take care of the ball, then we’ve got some problems. That’s a fact,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “I think there is wins in that locker room.

“If we get back in transition where we just have a chance to guard, and we play together, you move the ball, you co-exist – those are the things that will tie in the chance to win again. If we don’t, I have no idea. I think it’s a lottery.”

Thirteen of the Sixers’ final 23 games are on the road, and only seven of them are against teams out of playoff races. Winning another game this season is a conversation Brown said he has “all the time” with his players.

“He just says, ‘If we’re going to win a game, pull things together.’ All of us believe, every time we step on the floor, that we’re going to win the game,” said Sixers rookie Michael Carter-Williams. “We never go on the floor thinking we’re going to lose. We have to keep working, keep sticking together.

“We’re in the game. We’ve been blown out in the past games. We’re in the game. We just have to hold teams from going on those runs. It goes from eight to 18 in two minutes. We have to stop that.”

The Sixers visit Orlando Sunday.

(AP)

The 76ers’ Michael Carter-Williams has been named the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for the second time in the first three months of his career.

Carter-Williams averaged 16.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists in 17 games in January, earning the honor for the second time this season. He scored a career-high 33 points at Cleveland Jan. 7. In addition to the month of January, Carter-Williams also won it for his work in October/November to open the season.

The 6-6 point guard and Allen Iverson are the only Sixers ever to win multiple Rookie of Month honors.

Carter-Williams is averaging 17.3 points, 6.6 assists and 5.4 rebounds. Only three other rookies in league history – Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson and Steve Francis – have averaged those totals or better in their first professional seasons.

(AP)

The 76ers will hold a press conference Wednesday to officially announce the retirement of Allen Iverson.

Iverson spent parts of 12 seasons in a 14-season career with the Sixers. His legacy is not limited to those in Philadelphia, however. Earlier this week, Sixers coach Brett Brown commented on Iverson’s playing career:

Brown, on his best memory of Iverson:

“Philadelphia was my scout team for years and he was amongst the hardest people you had to scheme to guard because he could do it in so many ways. He is a great scorer, a great competitor. My most-vivid memory of him was when we were in the All-Star Game and I had the good fortune of coaching in (three) All-Star Games (in 2005, ’11 and ’13) with Pop and our staff. You go into a room and there’s 24 of the best players in the world in a small room and I actually had my son (Sam) with me, and I was thrilled to share that experience with him when he was very young. I look over and I see A.I. in a corner and I can’t believe physically, you know, he’s small. Small waist, but strong and cut. He’s small relative to the other great players. And I’m looking at him and to do what he did on a night-to-night basis and play with that toughness and get hit and get back up and have that fierceness in him with really a smaller type of body, he amazes me. That is one fierce competitor. For him to have the career he’s had in Philadelphia, I know the city is proud of him in what he’s accomplished. And having to guard him was a really, really hard assignment for the Spurs and scheming up with him was difficult if not impossible.”

Brown, on how to gameplan against Iverson:

“You had to guard him with a team. You had to put size on him with Bruce Bowen. Apples for apples, he could rise up quick and you couldn’t get to his shot. We opted to space him a little bit and put length on him with Bruce Bowen and show a real crowd around him where he wasn’t able to dance and rise up. You had to be there and crowd his space, take away his space, and maybe Timmy () or Fabricio (Oberto) or Rasho (Nesterovic) or long back in the day David (Robinson), with all of those bigger players there was a wall behind him. But I’ll tell you what – guarding him with anybody less than a full team, you had your hands full every night. He’s had big games against the Spurs and we were amongst the top defensive teams in the league. At times (against him), we couldn’t get it done.”

Duncan

(Associated Press)

Jrue Holiday had a career night, so did Maalik Wayns (if you can call it that), and the Sixers held off Phoenix, 104-101, Sunday night.

Here are some odds and ends from the game, which ended a two-game skid for the Sixers:

• Holiday had a career-best 33 points, along with 13 assists, in the win. Only one other Sixer in the last 25 years has had at least 30 points and 13 helpers -- some guy named Iverson.
• With five of them, Holiday has the second-most points-assists double-doubles in the NBA. He trails only Rajon Rondo in that department.
• Maalik Wayns, the rookie out of Villanova, was lauded in post-game by Sixers coach Doug Collins. What he didn't give them in defense, Wayns made up for in offense. He had a career-best seven points in seven minutes.
• Two guys Collins wasn't too pleased with? Rookie Arnett Moultrie and veteran Spencer Hawes, two bigs who combined for 22 first-half minutes...and zero boards. Oof.
• Holiday gets credit for scoring the final three points of the game, but the Sixers couldn't have won without Evan Turner. He was the one defending the Suns' Michael Beasley when he missed a tough shot under the rim in the closing seconds of regulation.
• QUOTABLE: “When he’s not in the game, you definitely can feel it,” Thad Young said of Holiday, who played 39 minutes. “The ball, it doesn’t move around a lot. Jrue is our distributor who’s going to get into the paint and make plays. Sometimes the offense gets stagnant without Jrue in there.”

The Sixers have off Monday and host Dallas Tuesday.