European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 24, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday april 24, 1990 the stars and stripes a a Page 21 last Chance rockets slide into playoffs a avs John Williams stuffs Over a Nicks Center Patrick Ewing on sunday in Cleveland. By Bill Barnard a basketball writer the Houston rockets got one More Chance and they took advantage of it. The rockets who lost by one Point to Dallas and in overtime at Denver in their previous two games were on the verge of missing the Aba playoffs going into the final Day of regular season games sunday. To make it they needed Seattle to lose at Golden state followed by a Houston Victory at Home against Utah. The rockets took advantage of the opening by defeating Utah 100-88 behind Akeem Olajuwon a 28 Points and Vernon maxwells 27. A the key was getting into the playoffs a now we can wipe the slate clean a rockets coach Don Chaney said. A a it a a new  the rockets finished in a tie with Seattle at 41-41, but Houston was 28-28 in conference play compared to the supersonics 26-30. Houston will play the los Angeles lakers in the Best-of-5 first round beginning Friday. Elsewhere in the Western conference it will be Dallas at Portland and Denver at san Antonio on thursday and Phoenix at Utah on Friday. In the Eastern conference on thursday night its Indiana at Detroit Cleveland at Philadelphia and new York at Boston followed on Friday by Milwaukee at Chicago. In other season ending games it was Boston 118, Philadelphia 98 Indiana 127, Washington 117 Cleveland 115, new York 99 san Antonio 108, Phoenix 93 Denver 1 is Minnesota 108 Detroit 111, Chicago 106 Orlando 110, new Jersey 102 Dallas 118, Charlotte 107 and Portland 130, los Angeles lakers 88. Michael Jordan finished the season As the scoring and steals Champion Olajuwon was no. 1 in rebounds and blocked shots John Stockton was assist Champi Aba Roundup Aba playoff schedule on Page 22 on Larry Bird was the Best at free throw percentage Mark West was Best in Field goal percentage and Steve Kerr was tops in 3-Point percentage. Stockton had 11 assists sunday to break his own Aba single season record increasing his total to 1,134, six More than he had in 1987-88. He also broke Isiah Thomas 1984-85 record of 13.9 assists per game with 14.5. Karl Malone led the jazz with 20 Points and 11 rebounds. Warriors 124, sonics 122 Seattle blew a Chance to Clinch a playoff berth when Tim Hardaway a Layup with three seconds remaining gave Golden state the Victory. The sonics needing a Victory to Clinch the final playoff spot trailed 122-116 with 43 seconds left in the game but Dana Barros hit a 3-Pointer to pull Seattle three Points Down and Quintin daily followed with another 3-Pointer, tying the game with 7.1 seconds left. After a warriors timeout Hardaway took a pass from Rod Higgins that led to the winning Basket giving the Rookie guard 28 Points. Dale Ellis led All scorers with 33 Points for Seattle before fouling out with 1 41 left. Xavier Mcdaniel had 21 Points and 14 rebounds for the sonics. Higgins finished with 25 Points for Golden state and Chris Mullin had 24. Nuggets 115, Timber wolves 108 Denver clinched seventh place in the West behind Michael Adams season High 32 Points against Minnesota. The nuggets pulled ahead after a sluggish first period and won a tight defensive Battle. Adams was followed in see Aba on Page 26oilers take 3-0 series Lead Over Kings by the associated press Inglewood Calif. A Craig Simpson scored twice and launched Edmonton a comeback from a two goal deficit As the oilers nipped the los Angeles Kings 5-4 sunday night to take a 3-0 Lead in the smythe division finals. The oilers can wrap up their sixth smythe division playoff title in eight years if they win game 4 tuesday night also at the forum. Only two teams in playoff history have come Back from 3-0 deficits. Wayne Gretzky the no la Sall time scoring Leader and the top Point maker during the regular season this year finally managed to get a Point against his former teammates when he scored the Kings fourth goal with l09 left. The Kings were skating with a sixth attacker when Gretzky scored. Gretzky took a hard shot to the Hack late in the first period but remained in the game. The Kings eliminated Edmonton in the first round last year Gretzky a first season with los Angeles aft Rstanley cup playoffs a Trade that Shook the hockey world. The Kings seemed to have solved oilers goaltender Bill Ranford who had allowed Only one goal in the previous two games. But Ranford won his sixth straight game and the oilers continued to get Economy out of their shots on goal and scored four times in the second period. They Only managed 18 shots Overall to the Kings 39. In sundays other game blues 5, Blackhawk 4 St. Louis a Gino Cavallini scored on a rebound with nine seconds remaining to give St. Louis a Victory Over Chicago and a 2-1 Lead in the Norris division finals. Cavallini scoring his first playoff goal in three seasons put the rebound of a snapshot by Jeff Brown past fallen goaltender Reg Millen to Cap a wild third period. Each team scored twice in the final 7 34. Ones after Steve Thomas scored on a wraparound while on his Knees to put the Blackhawk ahead. Hull extended his scoring Streak to All eight of the blues playoff games during which he has 10 goals and seven assists. He scored his fifth Power play goal of the playoffs in the first period a team record. Sergio Somesso set another team record for the fastest goal at the Start of the game scoring after 18 seconds. The blues were 2 for 5 on the Power play after going i for 8 with the Man advantage the first two games of the series. The Blackhawk were l-for-6 on the Power  sports baseball wednesday. Radio Cincinnati at Philadelphia 1 30