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Wizards look to clinch sixth seed in the East

Apr 18, 2007 - 3:26 PM Washington (40-41) at Indiana (35-46) 8:00 pm EDT

INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) -- The Washington Wizards have lost eight of their last nine games. They will enter the playoffs as high as the sixth seed or as low as the eighth seed.

On Wednesday, the Wizards close the regular season against the Indiana Pacers.

Washington (40-41) can clinch the sixth seed with a win at Indiana, coupled with a loss by the New Jersey Nets (40-41) against Chicago.

But if Washington finishes in a three-way tie with New Jersey and Orlando (39-42) at the end of the night, then the Wizards will slip to the eighth seed. Orlando hosts the Miami Heat on Wednesday.

The sixth seed will face the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the playoffs. The seventh seed will meet either Chicago or Cleveland. The eighth seed matches up against Detroit.

"It doesn't matter who we play because we have to play good basketball no matter what," Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson said. "If we get Toronto and we don't play good basketball, we can get blown out. Same with all of the other teams, so it doesn't matter who we play as long as we go out there and play hard."

Despite 48 points by Antawn Jamison, Washington fell to Orlando, 95-89 on Tuesday.

Indiana continued its second-half downward spiral with a 118-102 loss at Atlanta on Tuesday. Second-year forward Ike Diogu led the Pacers with 20 points.

Indiana is just 7-22 since the All-Star break and will miss the postseason for the first since the 1996-97 campaign.