NBA ROUNDUP : Hawks Clinch Top Seeding in the East

The NBA playoff picture got clearer Saturday, making nine of today’s 11 games meaningless as far as the postseason is concerned.

The Atlanta Hawks clinched the home-court advantage through the Eastern Conference playoffs with a 93-89 victory over the Orlando Magic at Atlanta.

The Hawks will play Miami in the best-of-five first-round series. The Magic will play Indiana.

Atlanta’s victory locked the New York Knicks into the second seeding and the Chicago Bulls into the third, no matter what happens in today’s game between the two teams.

All the Western Conference seedings were determined after Friday night’s games. Top-seeded Seattle will play Denver, Houston will play Portland, Phoenix will play Golden State and San Antonio will play Utah.

Playoff schedules will be released today.

“You always want to be going into the playoffs on a positive note,” Atlanta Coach Lenny Wilkens said after Saturday’s game.

The Hawks’ Stacey Augmon had 22 points and 11 rebounds, and his dunk with 26 seconds left ended the scoring. Kevin Willis added 21 points and 14 rebounds, Danny Manning had 19 points and Mookie Blaylock added 15 points and 15 assists.

The Hawks won their fourth division title since moving to Atlanta in 1968.

The key play came with about 30 seconds remaining. Orlando trailed, 91-89, and had a chance to tie. But with the shot clock running down, rookie Anfernee Hardaway lost the ball to Blaylock, who passed to a wide-open Augmon for the dunk.

“I thought it was great that the game came down to a defensive play for us,” said Wilkens, who has been stressing defense ever since he took the Hawks’ job after stepping down as coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers after last season.

Shaquille O’Neal, in a battle with San Antonio’s David Robinson for the league scoring title, led the Magic with 27 points and 19 rebounds. He is averaging 29.313 points with one game remaining against New Jersey. Robinson is averaging 29.266 points heading into his regular-season finale tonight against the Clippers.

“I wasn’t thinking about points,” O’Neal said. “I wanted to play my game--25-28 points. If I get the scoring title, I get it. If not, I’m not worrying about it.”

It was Atlanta’s seventh home victory in a row and its sixth in eight games overall to finish the season, leaving it with a franchise record-tying 57 victories.

New Jersey 135, Milwaukee 100--The Nets scored a season high in this game at East Rutherford, N.J., as their playoff picture remained unsettled.

The Nets’ fifth consecutive victory, matching their season-high, means New Jersey (45-36) won’t know its playoff pairing until the regular season ends today.

New Jersey will play either New York or Chicago in the first round.

If Cleveland (46-35) wins at home against Boston or both the Cavaliers and Nets lose today, New Jersey gets the cross-river rival Knicks, a team it beat four of five times in the regular season.

If Cleveland loses and the Nets win at Orlando, New Jersey will play Chicago, which beat the Nets three of four times this season and 19 consecutive times at Chicago Stadium.

Benoit Benjamin led eight New Jersey players in double figures with 20 points. Derrick Coleman had 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Indiana 114, Miami 81--Reggie Miller scored 24 points at Indianapolis as the Pacers clinched the fifth seeding in the Eastern Conference with a club-record eighth consecutive victory.

The Pacers (47-35) finished the regular season with their best record since joining the NBA.

The Heat’s 42-40 was also a franchise best.

The loss for Miami was its 11th in a row at Market Square Arena. The Heat is the only NBA team never to win a game there.

Charlotte 108, Detroit 103--Alonzo Mourning scored a career-high 39 points to lead the Hornets to a come-from-behind victory in their last home game of the season. Mourning also had 12 rebounds and five blocked shots.

Charlotte, which outscored the Pistons, 37-16, in the fourth quarter, improved to 41-40.

Phoenix 101, Sacramento 100--The Suns led, 94-75, with 5:45 to play at Phoenix before the Kings’ Spud Webb led a rally that barely fell short.

Webb scored 13 of his season-high 32 points during the rally, capping it with a three-pointer with 1.3 seconds left.