The San Antonio Spurs never bought it. They never believed the Oklahoma City Thunder that center Serge Ibaka would be out for the remainder of the NBA Playoffs with a calf injury. They were proven right, of course, when Ibaka returned for game three and played a key role as the Thunder won by a final score of 106-97.
More from NBA Playoffs
- The Denver Nuggets proved that defense still wins championships
- 3 teams that can challenge the Nuggets for the NBA championship next season
- NBA news: Nikola Jokic makes history, next steps for Nuggets, Heat
- 3 heroes from the Denver Nuggets Game 5, championship-clinching win
- NBA Twitter reacts to Nuggets first championship: Best memes and tweets
Whether it was gamesmanship on the part of the Thunder or they genuinely thought Ibaka was lost for the playoffs, the series of events rubbed the Spurs the wrong way. San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich indicated as much in his post-game press conference.
When asked about the injury status of veteran guard Manu Ginobili, Popovich took a shot at the Thunder with his answer:
Gregg Popovich on Manu Ginobili's injury: "He'll be fine. Or he's out for the rest of the playoffs."
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) May 26, 2014
That is very well played by the grumpy coach. It should surprise nobody that Pops was not impressed by the whole affair, even if he has been calling it from the start that Ibaka was going to play at some point in this series. This issue should not extend beyond this snippy comment or become any kind of issue; that just isn’t San Antonio’s style. It also isn’t clear to anybody but Ibaka just how much pain he is tolerating to be out there playing.
Whatever progress or series of events made it so that Ibaka was able to return, that development could be a huge development on the court. You would have been hard-pressed to find anybody picking anything less than the Spurs winning a short series after the first two games. Now this could be a new series with the Thunder’s third-best player back in the lineup.