The Houston Rockets can rest easy over the next few days. Everyone else who played Tuesday night can't.
The Rockets finished a three-game sweep of the Minnesota Timberwolves with a 125-120 victory in the first playoff game in Minneapolis since 1960. Houston now must await the outcome of the Phoenix-Seattle series"Experience is something you can't teach," Clyde Drexler said. "We certainly have a lot of it, and it showed in this series."
The Miami Heat also had a chance for a sweep, but they blew a 20-point first-half lead and lost 88-75 to the Orlando Magic.
Detroit and Phoenix took 2-1 leads in their best-of-5 series, the Pistons beating the Atlanta Hawks 99-91 and the Suns defeating the Seattle SuperSonics 110-103.
Chicago and the Lakers will be looking for sweeps when their series resume tonight. The Bulls, who lead the Bullets 2-0, play at Washington. Los Angeles, with a 2-0 lead over the Trail Blazers, plays at Portland.
Houston finished off the Timberwolves by shooting 15-for-28 from 3-point range. Matt Maloney went 6-for-8 from behind the arc and scored a career-high 26 points, and Mario Elie was 4-for-5 from downtown with 21 points.
Although Minnesota outrebounded the Rockets for the first time in the series (41-31), Houston shot 60 percent for the sweep.
Minnesota closed to 119-116 on a 3-pointer by James Robinson with 1:13 left, but Barkley answered with a 15-foot fadeaway jumper to make it 121-116 with 53 seconds remaining.
Although it had been nearly four decades since the last NBA playoff game in Minneapolis, the fans acted like postseason veterans from the start.
They taunted Kevin Willis during warmups after Willis' run-ins with Sam Mitchell during Game 2, and they were on their feet several minutes before player introductions, waving towels.
Magic 88, Heat 75
At Orlando, it looked like another blowout victory when the Heat took a 35-15 lead early in the second quarter.
But Orlando came back behind the play of Penny Hardaway, who scored 42 points, and third-string point guard Darrell Armstrong, who had 21.
The winner of the series will face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Heat denied they were looking ahead to the Knicks after getting off to the fast start.
"We didn't look past them. We came out with the intention to blow them out like we did the previous two games," Alonzo Mourning said. "No team is perfect. But I'm not worried. We know what it's going to take to win the next game and we are going to do it."
Mourning, who sat out much of the second quarter in foul trouble, led Miami with 17 points and 17 rebounds. Voshon Lenard had 14 points and Tim Hardaway scored 12, but shot only 4-for-16 for the Heat, who attempted 30 3-point shots and only made eight.
Pistons 99, Hawks 91
At Auburn Hills, Mich., Grant Hill scored 24 points with eight assists and four rebounds, Lindsey Hunter scored 26 on 11-for-17 shooting - including 4-for-5 on 3-pointers - and Otis Thorpe added 16 points.
Hunter did his big damage by scoring 13 points in the second quarter, staking the Pistons to a 16-point halftime lead. Detroit closed the half with a 20-9 run as Hunter made successive 3-pointers from the right corner, a shorter jumper from the right corner and a 3-pointer from above the key.
The Hawks battled back to make it a one-point game in the fourth quarter. But the long effort of catching up clearly took its toll.
Hunter's layup off a steal put the Pistons up 89-79 with 4:16 left, and that was all the breathing room Detroit would need.
Terry Mills had 17 points for Detroit.