ATLANTA The Atlanta Hawks did something Saturday they never haddone before. They clinched the top seed and home-court advantagethroughout the Eastern Conference playoffs with a hard-fought 93-89victory over the Orlando Magic.
"You always want to be going into the playoffs on a positivenote," Hawks coach Lenny Wilkens said. "This win gives us a lift,and that's important. We'll be ready."
Stacey Augmon scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to leadthe Hawks, and his dunk with 26 seconds left ended the scoring.Kevin Willis added 21 points and 14 rebounds, Danny Manning 19 pointsand Mookie Blaylock 15 points and 15 assists as the Hawks claimedtheir fourth division title since moving to Atlanta from St. Louis in1968.
The key play came with about 30 seconds to play. Trailing91-89, the Magic had the ball and a chance to tie. But with the shotclock running down, Anfernee Hardaway lost the ball to Blaylock, whopassed to a wide-open Augmon for the decisive dunk.
"That last trap kind of developed itself, and we were able toturn it into an important basket for us," Blaylock said.
Shaquille O'Neal, who is in a battle with the San Antonio Spurs'David Robinson for the league scoring title, led the Magic with 27points and 19 rebounds. He is averaging 29.313 points with a gameremaining today against the New Jersey Nets. Robinson is averaging29.266 points heading into his regular-season finale today againstthe Los Angeles Clippers.
"I wasn't thinking about points," O'Neal said. "I wanted toplay my game. If I get the scoring title, I get it. If not, I'm notworrying about it."
The victory was the Hawks' seventh in a row at home and theirsixth in their last eight games overall. They finished the regularseason with a franchise record-tying 57 victories.
The Magic, meanwhile, had a three-game winning streak snapped. SUMMARY, PAGE 10
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