NBA playoff seeding jumbled to the end

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, April 14, 2004

The final day of the NBA season has arrived, and 16 playoff teams will finally know their postseason opponents by the time it ends.

So far, only one first-round matchup - Boston vs. Indiana - is set.

One seeding was secured Tuesday night as Dallas defeated Memphis 110-103 to lock up fifth place in the Western Conference. The Mavericks won't know until the conclusion of play Wednesday whether they'll face the Lakers, Kings or Spurs.

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A victory gave Dallas a 36-5 home record - the best in the league. But because of their 15-25 road record, the Mavericks will become the first team since the 1990-91 Utah Jazz to have the league's best home record but open the playoffs on the road.

''We've had a great season at home and we didn't want to mess it up,'' Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki said. ''We wanted to get the fifth seed and we went for it. We had a great effort early on.''

The Mavericks were up by 13 after one quarter and led by at least nine until the final minute.

Memphis, which lost its third straight and fifth in six games, will have the sixth seed.

In other games, the Los Angeles Lakers rallied past Golden State 109-104; Toronto defeated Detroit 87-78; and the Los Angeles Clippers edged Phoenix 98-96.

Rookie Marquis Daniels continued his recent roll with 30 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for Dallas. This was his third straight 20-point game and fifth in 10 games.

Lakers 109, Warriors 104

At Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant bounced back from one of the least productive games of his career and scored a season-high 45 points.

The victory was just the second in five games following an 11-game winning streak for the Lakers (55-26) and lifted them into a tie for the Pacific Division lead with Sacramento.

Since the Kings hold the tiebreaker by virtue of winning the season series 3-1, the Lakers can win the division title only if they win at Portland and the Kings lose at Golden State in the regular-season finales Wednesday night.

Raptors 87, Pistons 78

At Toronto, Donyell Marshall had 27 points and 16 rebounds as the Raptors ended Detroit's eight-game winning streak.

Detroit's Ben Wallace became the first player in league history to have four consecutive seasons of at least 1,000 rebounds, 100 steals and 100 blocks. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Lacey all did it three times.

Clippers 98, Suns 96

At Phoenix, Chris Wilcox's rebound basket at the buzzer snapped Los Angeles' 13-game losing streak.

Wilcox, who scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench, put the Clippers up 96-93 on a tip-in with 16.2 left to play.

Elton Brand had 30 points and 11 rebounds for Los Angeles, which blew a 15-point second-half lead before pulling it out.

The loss dropped the Suns into a tie with the Clippers for last place in the Western Conference with each team having one game to play.