We’ve already seen on Saturday that it would be an interesting playoffs start with close games and the Atlanta Hawks that even won in Orlando. It was however unthinkable that last night the first two seeded Western Conference teams, the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers, could both lose.
The Memphis Grizzlies had never won a playoff game in the short history of the franchise. Yesterday Tony Allen had some minor injuries and during the game Zach Randolph bumped heads with his opponent DeJuan Blair but neither pulled back. The San Antonio Spurs have very experienced players but last night coach Gregg Popovich preferred to keep out Manu Ginobili for his elbow problems.
The game between the Spurs and the Grizzlies was close with both teams having the opportunity to take a decisive advantage. The end however was point to point: there was a great performance by Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph but the decisive points were scored in the last minute by Shane Battier and Tony Allen for the final 101-98.
The New Orleans Hornets are a team with financial problems currently owned by the NBA waiting for a solution that ensures them a solid future. Last night though it seemed that the Lakers were the team with so many doubts about their future because the champions played in an embarrassing way.
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The New Orleans Hornets always led in the score and though the Lakers came close in some moments when Kobe Bryant almost single-handedly got his team into the game too many of his teammates didn’t follow him while a great Chris Paul was helped by his ones.
Pau Gasol is considered better than his brother but last night he was non-existent and Lamar Odom has played badly too, leaving only Andrew Bynum to contend with his opponents’ big men. Ron Artest also tried to give some extra offence but among the Lakers too many played bad and in such cases Kobe Bryant ends up trying to do everything on his own forcing his shots. Someone says that he’s selfish but when most of his teammates play like last night you can’t blame him if he doesn’t trust them.
The end of the regular season had already seen the Spurs and the Lakers lose many games but the playoffs are another story and everybody expected a different result. Since the NBA has 16 teams in the playoffs it’s never happened that the first two seeded teams in a conference lost game 1 of the first round so yesterday’s results are quite surprising.
Both the Spurs to the Lakers have very experienced coaches and players and in a best of seven games series losing the first one isn’t a tragedy but it’s clear that things must change in game 2. Manu Ginobili will surely play even if he’s not 100% because he’s too important a player for the Spurs. For the Lakers it’s important that Gasol and Odom go into the court mentally and not only physically.
On Wednesday night both the Lakers and the Spurs play game 2: maybe both teams will dominate the game and will ultimately win the series in five games, right now they have certainly created interest in the first round that is too often boring.
