One Down, One to Go for the Hopeful Bucks

The “Big Three” kept the Milwaukee Bucks alive.

Behind 24 points from Sam Cassell, 23 from Ray Allen and 22 from Glenn Robinson, the Bucks routed the Toronto Raptors, 105-89, Tuesday night at Milwaukee.

“We’ve got one more,” Buck Coach George Karl said. “There’s not a lot of celebration tonight. There’s got to be preparation and rest.”

The Bucks, Raptors and Indiana Pacers are all 41-40 and fighting for the final two Eastern Conference playoff berths entering tonight’s regular-season finales. Indiana loses any tiebreakers between the trio and Milwaukee owns the tiebreaker against Toronto.

Toronto finishes the regular season at home against the Cavaliers, Indiana is at home against Philadelphia and Milwaukee, which has lost 11 in a row on the road, visits Detroit.

Toronto lost for only the second time in 13 games since All-Star Vince Carter was sidelined for the season because of a knee injury.

Indiana 99, Cleveland 95--Needing a victory to keep their playoff hopes alive, the Pacers got 34 points from Jermaine O’Neal at Cleveland and held on for their fourth consecutive victory.

Dallas 96, Utah 87--Michael Finley had 35 points and Dirk Nowitzki returned from a four-game absence because of a sprained ankle to add 24 at Dallas as the Mavericks took their bid to win the Midwest Division to the final day of the season.

The Mavericks are tied with the San Antonio Spurs at 57-24. Because San Antonio holds the tiebreaker, Dallas must win its finale tonight at Phoenix and the Spurs must lose at Utah.

San Antonio 95, Phoenix 71--Tim Duncan had 24 points and 11 rebounds at San Antonio.

San Antonio played without center David Robinson, placed on the injured list earlier in the day because of a lower back strain.

Detroit 103, New Jersey 98--Chucky Atkins scored 21 points and the Pistons clinched the second-best record in the Eastern Conference with a victory at East Rutherford, N.J.

Orlando 102, Atlanta 95--Monty Williams scored 23 points at Atlanta as the Magic ended a three-game losing streak and gave itself a chance to clinch the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference tonight with a victory over the visiting Heat.

Sacramento 120, Golden State 106--Playing without Chris Webber (sprained thumb), the Kings got a career-high 29 points from reserve forward Lawrence Funderburke in a victory at Sacramento.

Rookie Jason Richardson scored a career-high 40 points for the Warriors.

Charlotte 88, Miami 81--Jamal Mashburn scored 23 points at Miami as the Hornets pulled even with Philadelphia for the fifth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Washington 116, New York 112--The Wizards won their season finale at New York, finishing 37-45 and nearly doubling the number of wins from the 19-63 season of a year ago.

They went 30-30 when Michael Jordan played; 7-15 when he didn’t.

Jordan ended the season on the injured list because of a bad knee.

Denver 101, Houston 70--James Posey had 26 points as the Nuggets won at Denver.