Serge He's-Back-A!

They said he was out for the rest of the season. They speculated the Oklahoma City Thunder's goose was cooked. But on Sunday night, Serge Ibaka made a Willis Reed-esque comeback that would swing the momentum of this Western Conference finals series 100% in favor of OKC. The San Antonio Spurs had blown out the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first 2 games down in Texas, and when everyone saw how dysfunctional the Thunder looked on both sides of the ball without their big man commanding the middle of the floor, some people were even predicting a series sweep by San Antonio. But Serge Ibaka had other plans.

  A press release on Friday of last week reported that Ibaka's status was changed from "out" to "day-t0-day". Following the report, Thunder GM, Sam Presti, responded by saying, "His physical therapy and rehab on the calf has resulted in an incredible turnaround," and on Sunday afternoon, the starting lineups were announced and Serge's name was right there on it. In Game 3, the Thunder got off to a great start, and Serge scored 8 of the first 15 points for Oklahoma City. Both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook went 8 for 19  and Durant ended with 25 points and Russell finished with 26. Coming off the bench and  into a starting role for the 36th time this year (1st for the postseason), Reggie Jackson racked up 15 points to go along with his 5 assists. San Antonio, who relies so heavily on the play of their point guard, Tony Parker, ended up riding the coat tail of their sixth man, Manu Ginobili, who scored 20 first half points, but only scored 3 more in the next 24 game minutes to finish with a combined 23 points on 6 of 9 shooting from  beyond the arc. Tony Parker was almost unrecognizable and only scored 9 points on 4 of 13 shooting and only had 4 assists. It was safe to say that the Spurs didn't bring their "A"-game at all, and OKC took advantage of that.

  The game was never really close, and the Thunder were up 20 on the defending Western Conference Champions of last year early in the fourth quarter. The two benches for each team duked it out for the last 12 minutes and the Spurs cut the lead to 9 before the final buzzer sounded, and took the 97-106 loss. With that win, the Thunder still find themselves down 1-2 in the series, but that isn't worrying anyone due to the fact Ibaka is back in the lineup and was definitley making his presence felt on both sides of the ball. Could the Oklahoma City Thunder do what they did in 2012 and win 4 straight games to oust the Spurs and advance to the NBA Finals? The possibility is out there, but back in 2012, the Thunder had a guy by the name of James Harden, who helped them immensely, before he lost his edge in the Finals to Lebron James and the Miami Heat. But that's besides the point completely. 

  The Thunder look to tie the series up on Tuesday night in the Chesapeake Arena, and Serge Ibaka is, once again, in the starting lineup. San Antonio is looking for Tony Parker to rebound after his anemic performance, and looks to take complete control over the series with a 3-1 series lead heading back to Texas. Few teams have come back from a 3-1 hole, but it won't be a problem if the Thunder repeat what they did Sunday night, and play outstanding defense while getting valuable contributions from their bench players and role players. With Ibaka in the lineup, the Thunder rang up 8 more blocks than the Spurs and out-rebounded them by 16 boards. Just something to think about, as the Western Conference finals have become competitive, once again.