The Los Angeles Clippers forward took a hard, understandably intentional punch below the belt from Oklahoma city Thunder forward Serge Ibaka during Sunday afternoon's 108-104 loss.
The punch came on a supposed box-out attempt. Clippers forward Matt Barnes launched (and made) a terzetto-pointer from the corner, which pulled the Clippers to down three as the Thunder's big lead melted away. Griffin got invest on Ibaka, who dropped his hand into the front of Griffin's shorts to drop the All-Star.
"I didn't see it to where it was like that flagrant. (Griffin) took (Ibaka's) arm and knocked him down. The dude (is) known for flopping anyway, so that's what it is," Thunder's Kendrick Perkins told USA TODAY Sports' Sam Amick after the game. "I was (angry). The (Clippers') reaction after that was kind of like Serge Ibaka against Blake Griffin.
"He ain't going to deal the benefit of (the doubt) or what's really happening down there. You ain't eyesight all the stuff that other people are doing. Serge ends up getting the bad end of the stick. I didn't like the full-length thing — period. I thought it should've been a double foul."
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Ibaka was called for a flagrant 1 foul, meaning he stayed in the game. He proceeded to make a big layup, convert the free throw after Griffin fouled him and throw in a huge blank out on a Barnes layup.
"He hit my hands away," Ibaka told reporters. "He's strong, so when he grabs you, your jersey or whatever, and you chasten to defend yourself and rebound. So maybe you can do some move, not to ail, (but) undecomposed to get good position. But then something happens where you get legal injury in the paint. It's not anything where I want to try to hurt him. I'm not that kind of person. I just try to run across hard, and that's it."
Basically, the Thunder wouldn't have won Sunday's game without Ibaka's clutch short-change down the stretch. The stretch he probably should have been proscribe from unraveling because that foul was ridiculous.
"I just tried to play hard. I really don't care if someone is impure or not, that's not my problem," Ibaka said. "His game was intense, we all were complaining to the referees (about) some dirty stuff. It's basketball. We just played.
"If you can see the replay, you can see he grabbed my jersey first so I wanted to try to defend myself. (But) not to hurt him."
Photo: Stephen Dunn, Getty Images
Materials taken from USA Today
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