NBA Playoffs 2011: Will Memphis Grizzlies Pull off Improbable, Upset Spurs?

Four years ago, the Golden State Warriors upset the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs, becoming the first No. 8 seed to capture a best-of-seven series.

Now, with the Memphis Grizzlies playing the San Antonio Spurs tougher than anyone could have expected, murmurs are surfacing about whether the improbable could happen again.

For a few seconds, please allow me to toot my own horn, as I don't get to do it very often. It's just a strange side effect of being wrong so often.

A few days ago, going through the betting lines for the first games of the first-round series, a friend asked me what I thought about the Spurs-Grizzlies series.

I always liked the Grizzlies this season, and coming into the home stretch I thought they had pretty good odds of grabbing the No. 7 seed and giving the Lakers fits—probably ending up losing in six or seven, but still, giving them fits.

When they landed the eighth spot, I thought they were done.

Duncan always turns it on in the playoffs, and the Spurs just had too much postseason experience for the Grizzlies to give them too many problems.

Looking at it closer, however, you see that Memphis matches up quite well with the Spurs, especially in Game 1 without Manu Ginobili.

Memphis had a stout defense inside and outside, with Tony Allen giving them an edge on the perimeter and Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol making them extremely tough in the paint.

Then there was the addition of Shane Battier, which absolutely put this team over the top for me. He is the ultimate defender, able to go man-to-man with anybody, within reason—obviously he isn't slamming a body into Dwight Howard, but if you asked him to do it, he probably would.

So, after my friend asked me about the line (San Antonio -6), I told him I liked Memphis there, not just to cover but to win the game.

Without Ginobili the Spurs were at an obvious disadvantage if Duncan didn't step up, and I was putting all of my eggs into that basket.

When I saw the line for today's game I nearly plotzed. San Antonio was favored by eight this time. Sure, they would have Ginobili back, but Memphis had just showed that they were for real, beating the Spurs in a slug-fest.

Sure, some would say it took a lucky three-pointer by Battier to put the Grizzlies up, but what kept them in the game was far from luck.

Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph absolutely dominated Tim Duncan and Antonio McDyess, outscoring them 49 to 19, out-rebounding them 23-14, going to the line 14 times more than them and missing only six of their 25 field goal attempts.

Memphis made their threes but did not rely on them, and that's important in winning games down the line. It made the rest of the team realize they did not need an amazing shooting night to win the game (although they did have a good shooting night).

They became confident, they got their swagger, they knew they could win games.

That eight-point spread was too big, way too big. Not only did I think they could cover that, but I thought the could duplicate Sunday's results and beat the Spurs again.

Ginobili coming back would be huge, but Tony Allen guarding him would give him a tough way about it, and he could at least aggravate the guy.

The Grizzlies may not have gotten that second win, but they played another tough game as their bigs spent another night banging into everyone they could get a body on.

Memphis had a terrible night shooting, with a field goal percentage under 40 percent and making only three of their 14 threes, a far cry from the six of 10 a few nights ago.

The crazy thing about that, however, is that they were never out of the game, and could have pulled it off in the end. As long as their defense remains tough they'll have no problems staying close in games, and if their shots start falling again like they did in Game 1, look out.

Now the series shifts to Memphis, the Grizzlies are in a good situation, as they got a win in San Antonio, the main goal that any road team has in the first two games of a series.

Sure, winning both games would have been nice, but you didn't expect San Antonio to just give it away, did you?