Oklahoma City’s Thunder Cinderella season may be over with star player Ibaka injured.
For the second consecutive post-season, the Oklahoma City Thunder will be without a star player and this time it’s when it hurts. Last night before their series clinching victory over the Los Angeles Clippers to advance to the Western Conference Finals, Thunder star power forward Serge Ibaka left the game with a left calf injury. Initial reports were tight-lipped, as Oklahoma City remained optimistic regarding the outcome of his potential injury, but team doctors revealed he would have to miss the rest of the 2014 playoffs.
Ibaka has averaged 15 points, 9 boards and 3 blocks in 33 minutes per game and stay injury free during the entire season to help Kevin Durant clinch his first ever MVP Awards. This is an obvious huge blow to their team and will begin their epic Western Conference finals series Monday against the San Antonio Spurs. Last year, the team was plagued by the injury bug when Russell Westbrook suffered a torn meniscus in the opening round.
Check after the jump for more on the story and video conversation for Serge Ibaka.
He’s remained healthy this year, but they were looking to continue their quest back to the NBA Finals and potentially win a title. During the regular season, Ibaka gave huge contributions to OKC, with Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich shaking every time the defensive specialists name was mentioned. Game 1 of the WCFs is this Monday at 8pm on TNT.