A Roundup of the Week April 17-23

Compiled by Richard O'Brien

May 01, 1989

PRO BASKETBALL—The Pistons finished the NBA regular season with a flourish, winning their last five games. That streak, capped by a 99-81 victory over the Hawks on Sunday, gave the Central Division champions a 63-19 record, the best in the league. In the first round of the playoffs, Detroit was to meet the Celtics, who beat the Hornets 120-110 in the season finale and so avoided missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 years. Boston finished at 42-40. Although the Knicks opened the week with a 104-100 loss to the Bulls—Michael Jordan, who scored 20 of his game-high 34 points in the fourth quarter, went on to win his third straight NBA scoring title, totaling 2,633 points for a 32.5 average—New York wound up with a 52-30 record and the Atlantic Division title. The Jazz, which won the Midwest Division with a 51-31 record, closed the season with a 111-95 win in a playoff preview against the Warriors. Utah's John Stockton, the league leader in assists, had 10 in that game, to bring his season average to 13.6. Those two teams would face off again this week in the first round of the playoffs—but with a big difference: The Jazz would have Karl Malone back in the lineup. Malone, the league's second-leading scorer, with a 29.1 average, sat out the last two games of the regular season with a sprained ankle. The Pacific Division-champion Lakers, who are pursuing their third straight NBA title, won all four of their games and had the best record in the Western Conference, 57-25. L.A.'s season-closing 121-117 victory over the SuperSonics was the last regular-season game for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 42, who added 10 points to bring his NBA career-record total to 38,387. The Suns won three of their four games last week (and 10 of their last 11), including a 140-85 rout of the Kings—the largest margin of victory in the NBA this season—to finish two games behind the Lakers. In the season's final game, the Trail Blazers beat the Kings 126-120 in overtime, to clinch the lone remaining Western Conference playoff berth. The 1988-89 champion in rebounds, the other major statistical category, was the Rockets' Akeem Olajuwon, with 13.5 a game.