Serge Ibaka partially tore the plantaris muscle in his left calf during Game 6 against the Clippers, which normally carries a 1-2 month recovery period. But the Thunder forward is still hoping to return to the court during the Playoffs, per a Yahoo report:
Far from the beginnings of these Western Conference finals, far from these unfortified Oklahoma City Thunder, Serge Ibaka is defiant and determined for the world to witness his Willis Reed moment. 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, a league source told Yahoo Sports on Monday.
Deep down, Ibaka understands his medical timetable couldn’t possibly include a return to these conference finals, but no one has yet talked him out of the belief he’d be back in the lineup if the Thunder advanced to the NBA Finals, a source said. The Thunder believed this injury would be a one-to-two-month recovery period. Without a tear in that plantaris muscle, though, Ibaka wants to believe it can be sooner.
