NBA Scores & More: Final Night Settles Seeds

Both teams played close to their everyday rotations, but only the Hawks had something to play for, and they really came to play. Atlanta rushed out to a huge lead in the first quarter and never looked back, winning by a final score of 106-89.

By the end of the first, Atlanta had drained 16 of 23 field goals and led Dallas by 17. As Jason Walker of Peachtree Hoops writes, that blazing start afforded the Hawks the right to cruise the rest of the way, and said cruising actually worked out for them pretty nicely:

Minnesota’s defense was laughable, playing as if defense was an impediment to the opportunity to enhance offensive statistics, the Timberwolves gave up a stunning, jaw-dropping 80 points in the paint to the Nuggets.

Andre Miller led Denver with 10 assists in a little over 20 minutes, consistently finding players open near the basket, including McGee, who cashed in on three of those assists.

In typical Kobe fashion, even while speaking of the relatively selfless decision to rest rather than chase another scoring title, Bryant somehow still managed to come off as a megalomaniac when he said, “It’s not a challenge for me to score 38 points, you know? If that’s the benchmark, that’s all you need to do, that’s not really hard to do that.” Nice.

And that’s really all there is to say about the game.

“I have to say, ‘Mission accomplished. First-term goals set.’ Obviously there’s plenty more work to be done, but this is what we set out to do. We’ve got to stay focused. Guys, all year, have been playing hard, playing together; had a sense of urgency to move up in that win column. It just shows a lot of character from this group of guys.”

(via L. Jason Smith of NBA.com).

With the regular season in the rear-view mirror, the Magic and Grizzlies are now preparing for playoff matchups against the Indiana Pacers and LA Clippers, respectively. Here is the schedule for each team: