Panther's Perspective: Spurs and Magic on Brink of Elimination

As of the day this column was written (Tuesday, April 26th), the San Antonio Spurs (The one seed out West) and the Orlando Magic (The four seed in the East) are on the brink of elimination, and are down 3-1 in both of the respective series'.  

I have chosen to talk about these two particular series' because they are the only two series' where the lower seed appears to be ready to move on to the next round.

If the Grizzlies can hang on and win their respective series, they will become only the second eighth seed in NBA history to win their first round playoff series.  The only other time this has happened in NBA history was in 2007 when the Golden State Warriors upset the first seeded Dallas Mavericks in what was a shocking turn of events.

The reason the Grizzlies are on the verge of this upset is because they match up perfectly against the Spurs.  The Spurs have an old, slow, and one-dimensional power forward in Tim Duncan whereas the Grizzles have a young, athletic power forward that can stretch the floor in Zach Randolph.  The Spurs have arguably the quickest point guard in the NBA in Tony Parker while the Grizzlies have a point guard in Mike Conley that is equally as quick.  Not only that but the Grizzlies have arguably the most underrated big man in the league in Marc Gasol.  Everyone knows that the playoffs are all about matchups, and it's the individual matchups that are the reason the Spurs simply haven't been able to keep up with Memphis' youth, energy, and athleticism.  The only thing the Spurs have on the Grizzlies is coaching and experience, and it's quite clear that may not be enough.

In the East, the Atlanta Hawks are currently up 3-1 in their series with the fourth seeded Orlando Magic.  Last season, in the conference semi-finals, the Magic swept the Hawks and won the four games by an average of 25 points per game in what turned out to be the most lopsided playoff series in league history.  This year, the Hawks swapped Mike Bibby for Kirk Hinrich in what has turned out to be the most important trade that went down at the trade deadline.  In their series against Orlando last season, Bibby couldn't prevent point guard Jameer Nelson from crashing the paint and collapsing the defense and drawing in Atlanta's perimeter defenders.  With Hinrich at the point for the Hawks, he is giving Nelson fits and is preventing him from driving past him, which makes it tougher for Orlando's three-point shooters.  As it turns out, this trade is the reason the Hawks are one game away from the second round.