http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1082019616174710.xml Victory gives Hornets a break-even season New Orleans to open playoffs Sunday at Miami Thursday, April 15, 2004 By John Reid Staff writer WASHINGTON -- Hornets center Jamaal Magloire didn't ask anybody to change the channel on the locker-room television to check the score of the Milwaukee-Toronto game. He seemed like he wasn't that interested. But that game was the final unfinished business left Wednesday night to determine the Hornets' playoff seeding and first-round opponent after they defeated the Washington Wizards 94-78 in the regular-season finale in front of 17,113 at the MCI Center. When Toronto's Jalen Rose made a 3-pointer in the closing seconds to knock off the Bucks and clinch the Hornets' trip to play the Miami Heat as the fifth seed, Magloire and his teammates were on the bus to the airport. The Hornets will open their playoff series at Miami on Sunday at 6 p.m. "Either way, it would have been fine starting in Detroit or Miami," Magloire said after the game. "I believe we can play against anybody. We've got to have that mentality and not have favorites." Entering the final day of the regular season, the Hornets were unsure if they would enter the playoffs as a fifth, sixth or seventh seed. With Wednesday's victory, the Hornets avoided falling to the seventh seed, which would have meant facing the two-time defending Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Nets. The Hornets also avoided their first losing season since 1991-92, finishing 41-41. If Milwaukee had won, the Hornets would have been the sixth seed and would have been matched against the third-seeded Pistons. Now the Bucks will play the Pistons. Miami has a young, athletic team that won three of four games against the Hornets this season. The Heat likes to push the ball upcourt quickly, relying on young stars Caron Butler and Dwyane Wade. The Hornets will have to play better than they did this season when they lost 22 games to teams with losing records, and better than they did during a 10-game road losing streak. "The playoffs is when everything in the regular season is wiped away and everybody starts over," guard Baron Davis said. "We have a golden opportunity to do something special. We just have to play consistent basketball. A best out of seven games is going to give us the confidence that we can go in and know we can beat someone." Coach Tim Floyd was most pleased about earning a second straight road victory -- the Hornets won at Milwaukee last Saturday. "I think confidence may be underrated with some teams," Floyd said. "We are a team that needed to finish with some because we had our troubles throughout the last quarter of the season." The Hornets avoided trouble against the Wizards in the second quarter. That's when their inside game and Davis' playmaking skills were too much for the Wizards. Davis made all four of his 3-point attempts, scoring 12 of his 14 first-half points in the quarter. The Hornets shot 72 percent in the period and outscored the Wizards 33-19 on the way to a 57-39 halftime lead. The Hornets maintained their lead in the third quarter with superb perimeter shooting and built their lead to 23 in the fourth quarter with inside scoring. The Hornets were so much in command that forward P.J. Brown got an opportunity to rest his ailing right ankle. He played 10 minutes. Backup Robert Traylor came in and had six rebounds and eight points. But nobody was better than Davis. He scored a game-high 26 points and had five assists. Magloire finished with 23 points and a game-high 14 rebounds, and rookie David West came off the bench to get 11 points and eight rebounds. "We just wanted to have a strong showing and make sure that we finished the season at .500," forward George Lynch said. "It's a new season now." One they've been waiting for since October. . . . . . . . John Reid can be reached at [email protected] or (504) 826-3405. --

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