Final day to decide playoffs

With one day left in the NBA season, nobody is certain of exactly what they’ll be doing this weekend.

All 16 playoff teams are known, but none of them know both who and where they’ll be playing this weekend. A Lakers-Rockets series is the only certainty, but it’s unknown whether it will begin in Los Angeles or Houston.

Tuesday night, the next-to-last day of the regular season, featured San Antonio staying alive for No. 1 overall, Miami clinching the Eastern Conference’s best record, and Allen Iverson taking a slight lead over Shaquille O’Neal in the scoring race (26.61 to 26.48).

San Antonio beat Portland 87-81, Miami defeated Atlanta 93-79, Charlotte topped Philadelphia 117-110 in overtime, Utah downed the Los Angeles Clippers 99-92, Indiana trounced Cleveland 100-78, Houston topped Minnesota 100-83, Milwaukee beat Toronto 99-86 and Seattle defeated Dallas 110-100.

“Tonight’s game was the biggest game of the season for us,” David Robinson said after scoring 29 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in Portland. “Now tomorrow night’s game is the biggest. That would give us the homecourt all the way.”

Miami won’t know it’s opponent until after tonight’s game against the Knicks, but at least it knows where it will be playing in Game 1 of the first, second or third round.

“I feel very good about it,” coach Pat Riley said. “When the NBA lockout ended, there were four or five teams ahead of us in the East in most people’s minds.”

Spurs 87, Trail Blazers 81

At Portland, Robinson’s dunk off a missed jumper by Sean Elliott gave the Spurs an 83-78 lead with 12.2 seconds left. Portland’s Arvydas Sabonis made a 3-pointer with 10 seconds to go, but Mario Elie’s two free throws sealed it at 85-81 with 9.7 left.

“Definitely, it was David’s best game of the season,” said Spurs teammate Tim Duncan, who had 13 points, six rebounds and six assists. “He was incredible tonight. He took us the whole way through, played big throughout, kept on making the big plays and had the big dunk at the end.”

Avery Johnson added 18 points for the Spurs, who have won 30 of 35 games since starting the season 6-8.

If San Antonio loses tonight at Golden State, the Jazz will have home-court advantage throughout the postseason.

Heat 93, Hawks 79

At Miami, playoff-caliber defense made the difference as the Heat clamped down after Atlanta jumped to a 21-10 lead. The Hawks shot just 27 percent in the final three quarters, and the Heat forced six turnovers in the pivotal third period, when they took the lead for good.

“We held them to seven field goals in the second half. That’s amazing,” Alonzo Mourning said. “Defense has been our backbone, our heart and soul, and our crutch when things weren’t going well.”

Mourning, wearing newly designed wraparound glasses to protect his recently injured right eye, took just one shot in the first half and finished with 10 points in 32 minutes.

Hornets 117, 76ers 110, OT

At Charlotte, Iverson led the 76ers with 39 points, but missed seven of 16 foul shots and had four turnovers, including two in the final three minutes of regulation.

Philadelphia fell one game behind Milwaukee in the race for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

Eddie Jones had 28 points, five of Charlotte’s 17 steals and four blocks as the Hornets won for the 13th time in 17 games.

Jazz 99, Clippers 92

At Salt Lake City, Karl Malone had his first triple-double of the season with 29 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

Utah trailed 52-49 at halftime, and Lamond Murray’s steal and layup with 7:49 to play cut the Jazz’s lead to 79-75.

But Malone recorded an assist and a basket on Utah’s next two possessions, and Greg Ostertag scored back-to-back hoops to pull the Jazz out of danger.

Pacers 100, Cavaliers 78

At Indianapolis, Reggie Miller scored 24 points despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter as Indiana clinched the Central Division and the No. 2 seed in the East.

“It is a good thing to hang up another Central Division banner, but we are not done yet. We must continue until we get to where we want to be,” Mark Jackson said.

Rockets 100, Timberwolves 83

At Houston, Michael Dickerson scored a career-high 31 points, becoming the first Houston rookie since Hakeem Olajuwon to surpass 30 points.

Dickerson also had five assists and was 6-for-8 from 3-point range. Cuttino Mobley added 18 points for the Rockets and hit 4-for-6 on 3-pointers.

Bucks 99, Raptors 86

At Milwaukee, the injury-decimated Bucks were rebuffed in another attempt to sign Kevin Johnson, and beat the Raptors using a makeshift starting lineup.

Ray Allen scored 19 points, Armen Gilliam had 14 and Sam Cassell 13 as the Bucks overcame a sluggish start on a day when they learned Vinny Del Negro would miss the postseason.

Supersonics 110, Mavericks 100

At Seattle, rookie Vladimir Stepania had a career-high 17 points and 10 rebounds and rookie Jelani McCoy had a career-best 14 points.

The Sonics got 24 points from Gary Payton before he was ejected after receiving his second technical foul with 2:16 left. The two technicals gave him 22 for the season, the most in the NBA. Associated Press