In the Western Conference the Playoffs began with surprises

This weekend the 2011 NBA Playoffs began with surprising results in the Western Conference, where three top seeded teams –San Antonio, Los Angles and Denver- were upset by their rivals, putting them down in the series 1-0. A reaction from them is expected in game 2 to avoid things from getting ugly. With the regular season over records have become useless and now all the matters is being the best out of seven games to keep on advancing towards the title.

On Saturday the No.
6 Portland Trail Blazers travelled to the American Airlines Center, home of the No.
3 Dallas Mavericks for the Playoffs opener game in the West. Guided by Dirk Nowitzki’s 28 points they imposed their home field advantage with an 89-81 victory.

Nowitzki played an outstanding fourth quarter, where he accounted for 18 of the 28 points scored by the Mavericks in those final 12 minutes. But he wasn’t the only distinguished player of the team, as vetera
Jason Kidd put in 24 points, setting a postseason career best with his six baskets from the three point range.

Dallas will also host game 2, to be played on Tuesday.

That was going to be the only game won by a top seeded team that weekend, as Sunday was going to be a good day for the underdogs.

The No.
1 San Antonio Spurs were stunned at home by the No.
8 Memphis Grizzlies 101-98. The 18,581 fans present at the AT&T Center couldn’t find and explanation to what had happened to their 61-win Spurs.

What was evident was how important Manu Ginobili is for the team, as he missed the game due to a sprained elbow and the Spurs ended up losing the match.

Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol where the top scorers for the Grizzlies and together accounted for 48.5% of the squad’s points.

On Wednesday at San Antonio, the Spurs will have the chance to react during game 2 prior to moving the series to Memphis.

The surprises kept on coming in the West with the No.
7 New Orleans Hornets victory by 109-100 over the No.
2 Los Angeles Lakers on the road. A terrible night from Pau Gasol –who averaged 18.8 PPG during the regular season and only got eight points on Sunday- was deeply resented by the defending champions that couldn’t find answer in their bench, which reported just 21 points, against the 39 points scored by the Hornets’ substitutes.

As well as the bench, Chris Paul also had an outstanding game in the Hornets’ victory thanks to his 33 points and 14 assists. This made evident the poor state of the Lakers’ defense especially in the last games of the regular season when they lost 5 games in a row.

There isn’t much time to correct those mistakes as their second confrontation is scheduled for Wednesday night at the Staples Center once again, but the defending champions better come up with something if they want to withhold their crown.

And the last of the top seeded teams that was stunned at home was the No.
4 Oklahoma City Thunder, who lost 103-107 to the No.5 Denver Nuggets, squad that showed that teamwork is the best way to forget about Carmelo Anthony’s departure to the New York Knicks.

Five Nuggets –Hilario, Lawson, Martin, Gallinari and Felton- where able to put together double digit numbers, and two of them –Chandler and Smith-finished just one point short from doing so, statistics that illustrate pretty well the strength of this squad: everybody chips in.

With that same team effort is that the Nuggets are planning to take down the Thunder once again during game 2 action on Wednesday 20 at Oklahoma City.