Tonight is the night.

The night when the ping-pong balls land and it is determined who drafts in the top three of the NBA lottery.

In a matter of minutes the Los Angeles Lakers have a chance to go No. 1 or No. 2 or No. 3 in next month’s talent-heavy NBA draft … or to lose the pick entirely.

They can go from a hard decision between UCLA guard Lonzo Ball and other elite talents … to waiting for the 28th pick, which would be the extent of their draft.

By finishing with the third-worst record in the league, this past season, the Lakers have a 46.9 percent chance of landing one of the top three picks.

If that 46.9 percent top-three result does not come in for them, the Lakers send the pick to the Philadelphia 76ers, the long-term penalty for the ill-fated trade for a broken Steve Nash, back in 2012.

Considering the Lakers are desperate for more help, this is something approaching an all-or-nothing moment.

The club did itself no favors by winning five of its last six games to climb above the Phoenix Suns at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. That gave the Suns the second-best shot in the draft, at 55.8 percent.

If the Suns’ ping-pong ball is good for the top three … Lakers fans can rightly look at that as the penalty for winning five meaningless games in the final two weeks of the season.

And watch Magic Johnson’s face: He will be the Lakers’ representative on stage. A top-three pick … or not.

For what it’s worth, Lonzo Ball’s father, the loquacious/obnoxious LaVar, said he is confident the Lakers will get a top-three pick. And then they will take Lonzo. “He’s going to be a Laker,” he told ESPN. “I’m going to keep talking about it until it happens.”

If it happens … Lonzo Ball slots in at point guard, DeAngelo Russell moves over to shooting guard, and the Lakers wait and hope that their other high picks from recent drafts, forwards Brandon Ingram and Julius Randle, improve enough to get the Lakers back into playoffs contention … with championship contention somewhere down the line.

Or they lose the pick and try to add help through free agency … and maybe just continue to hang around the bottom of the conference.

It is a huge moment. Great news or awful news, and it’s pretty close to a coin flip.

Do you feel lucky, Lakers fans?