I’ve always known Serge Ibaka as a shot blocker. He’s almost like a younger, smaller version of Ben Wallace without the rebounding. He plays the power forward and center positions for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In yesterday’s NBA Western Conference Finals game against the San Antonio Spurs, he was a perfect 11 for 11, scoring 26 points mostly from mid-range jumpers. I didn’t know he’s so accurate outside of the painted area. In the past games I’ve seen him play, he’s only good for put-backs.
Maybe he’s always been a pretty good shooter, but for his team, which already has three gunners - Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden - he sacrifices his shooting game to focus on shot-blocking and rebounds.
It was Ibaka's smooth jumpers that made San Antonio coach Gregg Poppovich move his best defender Stephen Jackson away from Durant to defend him, which, in hindsight, was a huge mistake. Durant went a scoring spree against San Antonio's smaller defenders and put the game away.
