NBA Playoffs 2011: Could Grizzlies, Blazers or Hornets Upset San Antonio?

As the season finishes up this week playoff spots will be finalized, and with one game separating the Memphis Grizzlies, Portland Trail Blazers and New Orleans Hornets the question arises. Could one of these lower seeded teams upset the top ranked San Antonio Spurs?

As the playoff picture currently stands, Memphis is in the eighth seed, with Portland and New Orleans tied just a game ahead.

Memphis has a game remaining against both New Orleans and Portland, so they could single-handedly eliminate that one game lead and take the sixth spot by winning their final three games, but they would need both teams to lose one more game as well.

Needless to say, any one of these teams could end up facing off against San Antonio when the playoffs start up, something that seemed like a death sentence a few weeks ago, but now, as the Spurs look vulnerable, may not be as daunting.

San Antonio had run their record to 57-13 before having a late slide and ending up at 60-19 at this point.

They have been banged up, outplayed and had just plain old bad luck over that stretch, but it showed that they could be beat in a seven-game series.

So, let's take a look at what each team could do against the Spurs. First with the team that I feel would be least able to take them down.

New Orleans Hornets

Something strange has happened to the Hornets since they lost David West near the end of March. After losing their leading scorer you would expect an immediate downfall right?

Well, New Orleans went out and won four of the six games without West, mostly because of the stellar play of Carl Landry, a guy they traded for back in February.

Landry has averaged 17 points and five rebounds while filling in for West, and it is almost as if they never missed the guy.

The biggest question for the Hornets in the playoffs is about which Chris Paul will show up.

If the younger looking Paul shows up who can absolutely break down any offense in the NBA, the one who made a Paul vs. Deron Williams debate look absolutely silly shows up they have a decent chance of taking down San Antonio.

However, if the Paul who looks like a guy who was slowed by knee surgery shows up then they have absolutely no shot. They must have Paul at his absolute best to take down the Spurs.

Memphis Grizzlies

The Grizzlies have gone from a jostling bunch of basketball players to a terrific basketball team.

A season ago Memphis had a bunch of good basketball players who just happened to be playing together, now they have a full-fledged team that plays some of the toughest perimeter defense in the league.

It seems without Rudy Gay they should have no shot at beating the Spurs, but for some insane reason O.J Mayo has gone from moping about being almost traded at the deadline to giving quality minutes off the bench.

The combination of Tony Allen and Mike Conley guarding the perimeter with Sam Young in the starting lineup is pretty good, but when you replace Young with Shane Battier off the bench you have an absolutely fierce perimeter crew.

Then you have to throw in the fact that Zach Randolph has been monstrous in the post and that Marc Gasol is tough as nails in comparison to his brother Pau and you have a scary playoff team.

Winning without Gay has given them a type of swagger that makes it look like they think they could make a run at any team in the playoffs, and I'm starting to believe that myself.

This team matches up well with the Spurs for a few reasons.

That perimeter defense will cut down on the penetration that the Spurs get from Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, and it will curb their three point shooting.

Also, once the San Antonio guards do penetrate, Memphis has a young center who is decent at rotating around and picking up the driving man and a big forward who can knock them on the ground and make them think twice about coming into the paint.

The biggest problem would be their bigs watching out for Tim Duncan. If Duncan goes into "Playoff Tim Duncan Mode" he is one of the hardest men to stop in the game, as he will do whatever his team needs him to do in order for them to win the game.

Portland Trail Blazers

After the acquisition of Gerald Wallace, the Trail Blazers defense has been an absolutely fierce machine.

Since the beginning of March they have allowed slightly under 92 points per game, going 13-7 during that length of time.

Not only have they played good defense, but they have done it against some of the better teams in the league, even beating San Antonio twice over a period of three days.

One of the things the Blazers did to take down the Spurs in those games was make the Spurs do something the Spurs don't normally do. Turn the ball over.

San Antonio turned the ball over 19 times in their loss to the Blazers on March 25th and then turned it over 15 times in their loss on March 28th. They average just over 13 turnovers a game, good enough for tenth in the league.

These meetings may not mean as much, however, because in one game the Spurs were without Duncan and in the other they were without Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and Antonio McDyess.

Nonetheless, I still like the chance the Blazers would have against the Spurs.

They are a much younger team that is able to hang around in games until they find themselves on a run and open up a wide lead.

Portland has had some problems scoring in the fourth quarter this year at times, but their defense has bailed them out when the offense just can't get it done.

They have six players that average 12 points or more a game and other that averages nine a game. With their ability to spread their scoring around, they may be able to stretch the Spurs a bit too far for their old legs to carry them.