Serge Ibaka Intentionally Smacks Blake Griffin In the Groin (GIF)

Serge Ibaka got a little too up close and personal for Blake Griffin’s liking on Sunday when the Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Clippers met on Sunday. Late in the game, Ibaka looked to be guarding Griffin in the paint in the fourth quarter but what ended up happening had less to do with defense and more to do with Ibaka’s favorite play: The Nutcracker.

As video evidence shows, Griffin was defenseless when Ibaka clearly wound up and took a shot way below the belt on Griffin, one that resulted in a foul but miraculously no ejection.

To make things worse (and even more obvious), Ibaka appeared to look directly at his target before taking the controversial nut shot on Griffin. Ibaka was actually having a pretty good game up to that point and many people believe he should have been ejected for taking the shot, while others tried to defend it as incidental.

It was nowhere incidental but it played right into the chippiness of the game in the late stages. However, the nut shot came at a crucial time in the game and it had to have been totally emotional. At the time of the foul the Clippers were coming back in a big way and the game was incredibly close at the time.

However, the Clippers never got up off the court after the nut shot and fell 108-104 to the Thunder. Ibaka isn’t out of the woods though as while he wasn’t ejected, Stu Jackson and the NBA will be reviewing the tape of the incident and a fine is almost definitely coming Ibaka’s way.