By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The Philadelphia 76ers played without Allen Iverson, blew a 21-point first-half lead and trailed by 13 in the fourth quarter Saturday night before rallying for their fourth straight win, 112-106 over the slumping Washington Wizards.

Andre Iguodala, Willie Green and Marc Jackson scored 20 points each to lead six 76ers in double figures as the team spread the wealth without NBA scoring leader Iverson, who sprained both thumbs in Friday night’s win over Cleveland. Philadelphia improved to just 2-5 with Iverson out of the lineup.

Gilbert Arenas scored a career-high 44 points for the Wizards, who have lost five straight and are rapidly descending in the Eastern Conference standings.

Green started in place of Iverson and had nine assists. He also stole the ball from Arenas and fed Samuel Dalembert for a fast break dunk with 48 seconds remaining, capping an 8-0 run that gave the 76ers a 108-101 lead.

Cavaliers 98, Bucks 81

CLEVELAND – LeBron James made sure the only thing that dropped for the Cavaliers were his shots.

James made a career-high seven 3-pointers and scored 40 points – 28 in the first half – as Cleveland kept its weak grasp on a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with a 98-81 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night.

By snapping a three-game losing streak and winning for just the fifth time in 15 games, Cleveland (39-37) slowed its freefall through the Central Division standings. With six games left, the Cavaliers are tied with Philadelphia for the No. 7 spot in the East, 1 games ahead of New Jersey.

Mavericks 88, Jazz 81

DALLAS – Dirk Nowitzki scored 24 points to help the Dallas Mavericks secure home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs with an 88-81 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.

Nowitzki also had nine rebounds, five assists and five blocks as Dallas (52-24) wrapped up the fourth spot in the Western Conference playoffs. The Mavericks hold a 5-game lead over fifth-place Sacramento (47-30) and won the season series against the Kings 3-1.

Jason Terry added 14 points and Michael Finley had 13 for Dallas.

Hawks 105, T-wolves 98

ATLANTA – Tyronn Lue scored 23 points, including 12 straight in the fourth quarter, and the Atlanta Hawks beat Minnesota 105-98 to end a 14-game losing streak and hand the Timberwolves a devastating blow to their dwindling playoff hopes.

Minnesota, led by Kevin Garnett’s 31 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, fell four games behind eighth-place Memphis in the race for the final playoff spot in the West with five games remaining.

Lue, one of six Hawks in double figures, scored 14 points in the final period. His run of 12 straight points began with a basket with 5:30 left to give Atlanta a 91-85 lead and ended with 17.3 seconds left with a short jumper for a 101-96 lead.

Bulls 110, Raptors 97

CHICAGO – The Chicago Bulls secured their first playoff berth since the Michael Jordan era, beating the Toronto Raptors 110-97 on Saturday night.

Chicago is headed to the playoffs for the first time since the 1997-98 season, when Jordan led the Bulls to their sixth NBA title.

Nuggets 121, Sonics 105

DENVER – Carmelo Anthony had 24 points, Earl Boykins added 23 and the Denver Nuggets won their seventh straight, beating the Seattle SuperSonics 121-105 Saturday night to move a step closer to reaching the playoffs for the second straight season.

Andre Miller had 14 points and a season-high 17 assists, helping the Nuggets shoot 57 percent in their 21st win in 23 games – the franchise’s best stretch since going 27-2 in 1974 when they were still in the ABA.

They can thank coach George Karl for the run.

Uninspired and ineffective under Jeff Bzdelik and Michael Cooper, the Nuggets have responded to Karl’s my-way-or-else approach, knowing they have to play hard or they’ll end up watching.

Denver is 28-6, including 15-1 at home, since Karl took over as coach Jan. 28, moving from 11th in the Western Conference to seventh, with a chance to catch Houston for sixth.

The win over Seattle, combined with Minnesota’s loss to Atlanta, means the Nuggets need one win or another Timberwolves’ loss to clinch consecutive playoff appearances for the first time since 1994-95.

Ray Allen had 32 points and Ronald Murray 20 for Seattle, which has lost four straight – all with a chance to clinch its first division title since 1998, when Karl was still coach.

The Sonics had just nine players in uniform for the second straight night.

All-Star forward Rashard Lewis missed his sixth straight game (foot), forward Vladimir Radmanovic (leg) sat out his 12th straight (leg) and guard Antonio Daniels (knee) missed his second straight. On top of that, Danny Fortson didn’t make the trip because of a sore shoulder.

In other words, the Sonics didn’t stand much of a chance against the revved-up Nuggets.

Pushing the pace at every chance, Denver had a 12-point lead in the first six minutes and continued to pour it on. The Nuggets were up 41-25 in the first quarter after hitting 14-of-19 shots, and had the lead at 22 points 3 minutes into the second.

It was so out of hand by midway through the quarter that Karl spent about a minute yelling out instructions while holding a little girl, who was part of a skit during a timeout.

It still wasn’t as easy as it should have been.

Seattle whittled the lead to 68-54 by halftime, got it to 75-67 midway through the third quarter, and were still down just 97-88 after Murray beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer from just inside halfcourt.

The Sonics just couldn’t get any closer, in part because of foul trouble.

Seattle had six players with at least four fouls and Allen had to go with 9 minutes left in the fourth quarter after getting his fifth foul – and a technical to go with it. The Nuggets took advantage with an 8-0 run to go up 110-92 and pulled away from there.

Notes: Nuggets backup forward Eduardo Najera didn’t play because of the flu. … An ovation rang out midway through the second quarter when the scoreboard showed highlights from Denver University’s second straight NCAA hockey title earlier Saturday.

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