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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Toronto Raptors finished the most
successful regular season in franchise history. The payoff? Another
playoff series against the New York Knicks.
|  | | Chris Childs flips in two of his 11 points against the Wizards. |
Vince Carter scored 34 points Wednesday night as the Raptors
beat the Washington Wizards 98-92. The victory guaranteed a
fifth-place finish in the Eastern Conference and a first-round
series against the Knicks, who clinched fourth by beating Detroit.
The Raptors, who entered the league in 1995, made the playoffs
for the first time last season and were swept by the Knicks in
three straight games.
"It's kind of ironic that we're playing the Knicks," said
Chris Childs, who was traded from New York to Toronto in February.
"It seems like the rivalry we had when I was in New York with
Miami has transformed into a New York and Toronto rivalry. ... I'm
just going to go and play and see a lot of good friends."
The Raptors won three of four regular season games against the
Knicks this season.
"That doesn't mean nothing," center Antonio Davis said. "We
beat them 3-1 last year and they swept us from the playoffs.
"This Raptors team is little more experienced. There's a kind
of calmness about us as far as being down and panicking. We've been
down in certain situations and things didn't seem to be going our
way, but somehow we seem to pull together and win the ball game.
Last year when we got down and things weren't going away, we
scrambled and couldn't find a way to get back in and win the
game."
Toronto finished the season 47-35. The 47 wins tops the previous
franchise mark of 45 set last season, and the 20 road wins beats
the record 19 from last season.
The Wizards (19-63) set a franchise record for most losses in
Michael Jordan's first full season as president of basketball
operations. The 63 losses is one more than the 1961-62 Chicago
Packers, who finished 18-62 in an 80-game schedule two years before
the team moved to the Baltimore-Washington area.
After the game, Leonard Hamilton stepped down as coach.
The game was surprisingly competitive, considering the Raptors
had postseason motivation against a play-out-the-string Wizards
team that dressed only eight players. Toronto didn't put the game
away until Carter and Chris Childs combined for a 7-0 run that made
the score 91-80 with 6:55 to play.
There were signs the Raptors were taking the Wizards too
lightly. Morris Peterson passed up an easy fast-break layup and
instead misfired on an alley-oop attempt to Carter six minutes into
the game. Carter finished with four dunks, including two reverse
dunks and a one-handed breakaway monster dunk in the third quarter
that brought the biggest cheer of the night.
"I try to tell the guys to go out and play hard, but sometimes
it's hard," coach Lenny Wilkens said. "Subconsciously, you just
can't get going some nights. In the end there, we turned it up a
little bit. But we certainly didn't play with the kind of intensity
we normally play with."
Peterson added 20 points for the Raptors, who have won seven of
their last nine games.
Courtney Alexander scored a career-high 33 points to lead the
Wizards, who lost nine of their last 10. Among the players not
dressed for the final game were Richard Hamilton (sore left elbow),
Jahidi White (strained right Achilles) and Christian Laettner
(bruised left big toe).
Game notes
The Wizards became the first team in six seasons to play an
entire regular season without an overtime game. The Los Angeles
Lakers didn't have OT in 1994-95 season. It's only happened eight
times since the league went to an 82-game schedule in 1967. ... The
Raptors swept the four-game series against the Wizards. ...
Washington's Michael Smith scored a season-high 18 points, and
Popeye Jones had a season-high 16 rebounds for the Wizards. ...
Charles Oakley was 0-for-9 from the field for Toronto. ... Although
the Wizards had only three reserves available, one of them didn't
play. Hamilton kept Loy Vaught on the bench the whole game.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Toronto Clubhouse
Washington Clubhouse
Wiz shuffling: Hamilton resigns, Collins in
RECAPS
Charlotte 97
Boston 92
Chicago 92
Philadelphia 86
Toronto 98
Washington 92
Indiana 105
Cleveland 101
New York 94
Detroit 88
Miami 103
Orlando 91
Dallas 120
Minnesota 100
Denver 110
Sacramento 100
Seattle 105
San Antonio 67
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