Serge Ibaka, so proud, so professional, is respectively raging against his injury diagnosis.
Ibaka is back in Oklahoma City for Games 1 and 2 – ruled out of the playoffs with a lower leg injury – but his willingness to play with pain, his loyalty to the championship cause, has him thinking about starting some stationary shooting late this week.
How the ever-conservative and protective Thunder will react to Ibaka's eagerness is uncertain, but coach Scott Brooks repeated over and over late Monday: "He's not coming through those doors. … He's not coming back."