NBA ROUNDUP : Dallas Has Minnesota’s Number for Fifth Time

The Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves hit their magic numbers Sunday night--82.

Already having locked up lottery spots, Dallas and Minnesota played out their seasons against each other at Dallas, with the Mavericks winning, 116-102, behind a season-high 22 points from Tony Campbell.

Maybe the Mavericks (13-69) wouldn’t have been the worst team in the league--again--had they played the Timberwolves more often.

Five of Dallas’ 13 victories came against Minnesota (20-62), which tied for the league’s second-worst record and ended the year with 10 consecutive losses.

The Mavericks actually went out on several positive notes. It was their second straight victory, fourth in their last seven and enabled them to avoid setting two more NBA futility marks.

Dallas missed becoming the first team to lose 70 games in consecutive seasons, and its sixth home victory kept it from the worst-ever home winning percentage. The Mavericks finished at 14.6%.

Denver 115, Houston 107--Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s second free throw of the game fell short, and so did his bid to break Calvin Murphy’s NBA single-season free throw percentage record at Houston.

Abdul-Rauf missed his second free throw with 6:50 left in the third quarter to finish 219 for 229 for the season, or 95.6%.

Murphy, who set the record in 1980-81 while playing for the Rockets, missed nine free throws in 215 attempts, an NBA record 95.8%.

Hakeem Olajuwon had 34 points, 13 rebounds and 11 blocked shots for the Rockets, who completed their best regular-season record ever (58-24) despite finishing with losses to Dallas and Denver.

Orlando 120, New Jersey 91--Shaquille O’Neal’s 32 points weren’t enough to overcome David Robinson for the NBA scoring title as the Magic won at Orlando.

O’Neal, who ended the season with a 29.35 average to Robinson’s 29.79, could only shake his head when teammates told him late in the first half that Robinson scored 71 points in the Spurs’ 112-97 victory over the Clippers.

Robinson’s point total meant O’Neal would have had to score 68 to overtake him. When O’Neal got the news, he had only 16.

Seattle 110, Portland 108--Gary Payton and Vincent Askew led a second-half rally that brought the SuperSonics back from a 17-point deficit at Portland as they ended their most successful regular season.

Askew made four free throws in the final 16 seconds to clinch the Sonics’ 63rd victory of the season, the most in the NBA.

Cleveland 117, Boston 91--The Cavaliers set up another playoff series with longtime nemesis Chicago as John Williams scored 22 points at Richfield, Ohio.

Cleveland (47-35) is the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference and will open the first round Friday at Chicago against the third-seeded Bulls.

The Celtics (32-50) finished their worst season since they were 29-53 in 1978-79.

New York 92, Chicago 76--Patrick Ewing scored 25 points and the Knicks used their rugged defense in the regular-season finale at historic Chicago Stadium.

The Knicks’ victory was only their third in the last 28 games in Chicago, including the playoffs.

Sacramento 105, Golden State 97--Spud Webb scored 25 points, including a key layup with 31 seconds left, to help the Kings end their ninth consecutive losing season with a victory at Sacramento.

The victory, coupled with the Clippers’ loss to San Antonio, gave Sacramento the league’s eighth-worst record for the upcoming NBA lottery.

Philadelphia 110, Detroit 102--Orlando Woolridge had 24 points and 10 rebounds and Johnny Dawkins scored 14 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter at Philadelphia to help hand the Pistons their 13th consective defeat.

The victory snapped a five-game losing streak and gave the 76ers a 25-57 record. The Pistons finished at 20-62, the most games they have lost since they were defeated 66 times in 1979-80.

Washington 117, Charlotte 99--Tom Gugliotta scored 31 points and 7-foot-7 rookie Gheorghe Muresan had a career-high 21 at Washington to help the Bullets close out a dismal 24-58 season.