Breathe easy Thunder fans.
According to Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports, forward Serge Ibaka will avoid a suspension (or any penalty in general) following him delivering a blow to Blake Griffin’s groin.
Nothing about Ibaka’s punch to Griffin’s mid-section looked intentional, but Ibaka’s past played a huge roll in this getting viewed by league offices. A while back, Serge had intentionally struck Griffin in the mid-section, somehow avoiding any kind of technical foul, flagrant foul, or penalty that would be handed down from the NBA after reviewing the tape. But this time, Ibaka was safe.
With the series at 2-2, a suspension on either side would be a huge blow to how these series have played out. We saw it in the first round, Grizzlies-Thunder to be exact, how deflating a team can look when a key player is suspended for a game. It just so happened that Memphis’ Zach Randolph was suspended for Game 7 of the series, a move that caused some to build an early grave for a Grizzlies team that did their best considering the circumstances.
But instead, thanks to the league avoiding a huge overreaction, we get to see these two teams at full strength as the series heads back to Oklahoma City for Game 5. After the first two games of the series resulted in blowouts, the last two have come down to the wire. There’s not a more entertaining series than this one and hopefully that trend continues later today now that Ibaka is safe from any league ruling.