Bucks Out; Raptors, Pacers in

Sam Cassell couldn’t pull off what Joe Namath and Mark Messier did.

Cassell guaranteed Tuesday that his Milwaukee Bucks would beat the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday and clinch an Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Instead, the Bucks failed miserably, losing, 123-89, and were eliminated from the NBA playoff race after the Toronto Raptors, winning 12 of their final 14 games without the injured Vince Carter, and the Indiana Pacers clinched the final playoff berths with victories.

“Why shouldn’t I have had made that guarantee?” Cassell said. “If we would have played with the intensity we should have had, we would have won the game. We just didn’t work hard enough.”

Cassell, playing on a bad toe, scored only six points, 18 fewer than he had in Tuesday’s victory over Toronto.

The loss was the final act in Milwaukee’s collapse as the Bucks lost 16 of their final 22 games overall and 12 in a row on the road to miss the playoffs.

“We have no one to blame but ourselves,” Milwaukee Coach George Karl said. “This is a bitter disappointment, but we created it for ourselves with our lack of urgency and our lack of commitment. We just kind of self-destructed.”

Cliff Robinson scored 24 points as Detroit (50-32) got its first 50-win season since 1996-97.

Glenn Robinson led Milwaukee with 21 points, but Ray Allen had only six.

“We know we are better than this,” Allen said. “We’ve got a lot of things to work on this summer.”

Toronto 103, Cleveland 85--Morris Peterson and Jerome Williams each scored 22 points at Toronto to help the Raptors clinch the No. 7 spot.

The Raptors, who had lost 17 of 18 games before Carter was sidelined for the season by a knee injury, will open the playoffs against Detroit.

Indiana 103, Philadelphia 80--Brad Miller scored 19 points at Indianapolis as the Pacers closed the season with their fifth consecutive victory to clinch the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff berth.

To make the playoffs, the Pacers needed a victory and a loss by either Milwaukee or Toronto and the Bucks obliged. Indiana will open against top-seeded New Jersey.

San Antonio 86, Utah 84--Tony Parker drove the length of the floor and scored on a layup with two seconds left at Salt Lake City, clinching the Midwest Division title for the Spurs.

The Spurs will get Seattle in the first round.

Meanwhile, Utah got the No. 8 seeding and will open against Sacramento.

Phoenix 89, Dallas 76--Jake Tsakalidis had 19 points at Phoenix as the Suns relegated the Mavericks to fourth place in the West.

The Mavericks will open against Minnesota.

Charlotte 112 Chicago 106--Jamal Mashburn and Elden Campbell had 20 points apiece at Charlotte, N.C., to help the Hornets leap past Orlando for the No. 4 seeding in the East and home-court advantage in their first-round series.

Seattle 109, Memphis 94--Desmond Mason scored 33 points on 13-of-16 shooting and Gary Payton had 30 as the SuperSonics clinched the No. 7 playoff berth at Seattle.

Portland 92, Houston 79--Steve Kerr had 16 points as the Trail Blazers rested their starters for the final quarter in a forgettable regular-season finale at Portland, Ore.

The Trail Blazers will play the Lakers in the opening round.

Miami 103, Orlando 89--The Magic, with Tracy McGrady out because of a bad back, lost home-court advantage in the first-round of the playoffs with its setback to the Heat at Orlando, Fla.

New Jersey 99, New York 94--The Nets overcame an 11-point, third-quarter deficit at New York to sweep the season series from the Knicks for the first time in 17 years.

The Nets last swept the Knicks in the 1984-85 season.

Minnesota 104, Denver 90--Wally Szczerbiak scored 20 points in 23 minutes at Minneapolis as the Timberwolves tuned up for the playoffs.

The Timberwolves, who clinched the Western Conference’s fifth seeding last week, closed the regular season by winning eight of 12 and tied a franchise record with 50 wins.

Boston 89, Atlanta 81--Rodney Rogers, starting in place of Antoine Walker, scored 25 points at Boston as the Celtics head into the playoffs seeded third in the East with seven victories in their last eight games.

Walker, nursing a sore right thumb, will be ready when the Celtics make their first playoff appearance since 1995 when they play Philadelphia.

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Guard Jason Terry of the Atlanta Hawks was fined $10,000, forward Don Reid of the Orlando Magic was fined $7,500 and both were suspended without pay from their teams’ final regular-season games for fighting Tuesday night.