(Brett Davis/USA Today Sports)
The Oklahoma City Thunder realize it won’t be easy to return to the NBA Finals without Russell Westbrook and they were hoping to close out their opening round series against the Houston Rockets on Monday. Unfortunately, it looks like the Thunder will have to wait at least one more game before closing things out, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have a chance to win at the end of the game.
In fact, the Thunder found themselves in the position to tie the game at the end when Serge Ibaka missed a layup that would have sent the game into overtime tied at 105-105. Ibaka found the ball in his hands after Reggie Jackson missed a layup and as you can see based off his reaction–Ibaka knew that was a shot that he should have made as he missed out on the perfect opportunity to tie up the game.
On the bright side, at least Oklahoma City still has a commanding 3-1 lead in the series and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they closed things out in Game 5 to advance to the semifinals. Either way, it’s obvious why Ibaka and the Thunder would be frustrated after this loss considering the last thing they want to see happen is the Rockets pushing for a comeback in the series.
Then again, this is the Thunder we’re talking about here–so it doesn’t look like there’s any reason for them to worry heading into Game 5.
