Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 16, 1995 TAG: 9504180059
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Charlotte Hornets will have the home-floor advantage in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Or will they?
Unless Charlotte can overtake Indiana for the Central Division title in this 24th and last week of the regular season - and that's not likely - the Hornets will start the best-of-five opening series against Michael Jordan with two games in his native state.
Guess who may feel Carolina blue?
A worse prospect for Charlotte is that without injured forward Scott Burrell, gone for the season after tearing his right Achilles' tendon three weeks ago, the Hornets must try to defense Jordan and Chicago teammate Scottie Pippen with David Wingate or Hersey Hawkins and Larry Johnson.
That's not just trouble. It could be foul trouble. Jordan changes the entire focus of the NBA's postseason. Even with a cold-shooting Jordan, the Bulls are 9-3 since his return from baseball. Charlotte (48-29) is one of the league's most improved defensive clubs. Allan Bristow's team has held opponents to fewer than 100 points in 49 games this season and has a franchise record for victories.
However, the Hornets cannot be seeded better than fourth in the Eastern Conference unless they overtake the Pacers. Division champs get the top two seeds in each conference. So, the Central winner will get the No.2 seed (behind Orlando) and play Atlanta. The other is a No.4 seed, with Chicago fifth.
Jordan's late-season return makes that seed difference so significant, making Charlotte-Chicago the most intriguing first-round matchup. And you know executives from NBC and Turner Broadcasting already are dreaming of a Shaq-Michael matchup in the second round.
CUTTING: Roanoke played two hockey seasons with little help from its Kansas City affiliate in the San Jose system, so the Express must enjoy the Blades' predicament in the first round of the IHL playoffs.
In Thursday's opener, Kansas City lost 3-1 to Detroit when Vipers goalie Daniel Berthiaume - who was playing a week earlier for the KC affiliate here - stopped 34 Blades shots. Seems the Blades didn't offer Berthiaume a contract. Don't expect the Express to be goin' to Kansas City for any deal next season, either.
STAYING PUT: The best thing the Express and its ECHL brethren did this season was stay together and back away from a move of several strong franchises to the higher-priced American Hockey League. The ECHL has a good thing going. The only danger might be too much expansion too fast.
TOO MUCH: There are 11 national high school all-star basketball games scheduled this month. Is it any wonder so many prospective recruits get the wrong message about which half of the ``student-athlete'' combination is more important? This year's list of the state's top prospects is a classroom embarrassment.
SURVIVOR: Dallas coach Dick Motta should win the Red Auerbach Award as the NBA's coach of the year, and not just because he's cleaned up Quinn Buckner's mess of the Mavericks. He should get it because it's been 24 seasons since he last won the honor. That's really spanning a generation gap.
WOE, CANADA: Montreal is having a wonderful sports year. The Expos had the best record in baseball last year, but no reward. The baseball strike was followed by an NHL lockout. The Canadiens are in danger of not making the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 1970. Then, the Expos exported stars John Wetteland, Marquis Grissom and Ken Hill and lost Larry Walker to free agency last week, and the franchise is rumored to be headed for Northern Virginia. Is this NAFTA at work?
CHEERS: Washington quarterback Heath Shuler won't be booed this preseason as he was last year as a Redskins rookie. The NFL club's only ``home'' preseason game will be played at Tennessee's Neyland Stadium, where Shuler is loved by the Vols faithful.
GO JOE: Which NFL move do you think will be responsible for more late erasures on the league's TV schedule for 1995? The Rams to St.Louis or Joe Montana to the sunset? Well, the Rams weren't going to play more than once, if at all, on Monday night.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL FOOTBALL
by CNB