The second day of the 2011 NBA Playoffs provided four tightly contested games and nearly four road upsets.

• Memphis Grizzlies 101, San Antonio Spurs 98

The Spurs limited Memphis on the offensive glass, Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich surely didn’t se a 9-for-10 from Marc Gasol coming. They probably also didn’t foresee Memphis going 6-for-10 from distance with O.J. Mayo posting a 3-for-4 and Shane Battier with a 2-for-2 and the dagger.

I expect the Spurs to emphasize the transition game a little bit more in Game 2 and also move the ball better as 13 assists for this team is unacceptable.

Memphis did an excellent job in controlling pace and San Antonio’s 47 attempts from the line played a part in that.

• New Orleans Hornets 109, Los Angeles Lakers 100

We can throw away the Phil Jackson has never lost a series after winning the first game storyline and I think we’re all the better for it.

Looking at the Hornets in preparation for this series, it shocked me that a Chris Paul team could be as inefficient on offense as they were over the regular season. But Chris Paul wasn’t always the Chris Paul we saw in Game 1. He had the expected 14 assists, but he also scored 33 points on 18 shots and turned the ball over just twice. Paul was scoring with the ease of an MVP and his assists were creating easy buckets at the rim.

As a team, the Hornets also had just three turnovers compared to 13 for the Lakers.

The advantage the Lakers hold over everyone, especially the Hornets, is in the frontcourt. While Andrew Bynum looked healthy and was productive, Pau Gasol was a no-show offensively.

A loss for a team like the Lakers sometimes is worth more than a win and this one could shock them into winning the next four.

• Boston Celtics 87, New York Knicks 85 

A 67.8 TS% Game 1 for Amar’e Stoudemire versus a just 38.0 TS% for Carmelo Anthony and New York had to go away from Stoudemire down the stretch. This helps explain why the Knicks had a tale of two offenses in their playoff debut together that they controlled for a large stretch of it. The part 

Beyond Ray Allen’s game-winner and team-high 24 points, the Celtics received fairly typical balance across the board. The other members of the Big 4 were largely inefficient, but were picked up by having a large impact with his 12 points on six shots, four boards and four blocks.

• Oklahoma City Thunder 107, Denver Nuggets 103

The Thunder have two superduperstars (Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined to score 72 points) and the Nuggets have a nice collection of well above average scorers.

Eight of Denver’s nine players had at least eight points. Nene was the main man, scoring a very efficient 22 points on 11 shots.

The Nuggets had plenty of opportunities to win this one and will look to the no-call on the offensive interference and their inability to hit efficiently from the line (21-for-33) and from distance (4-for-16) as the main culprits.