Serge Ibaka Will Miss Remainder of Playoffs with Calf Injury

For the second year in a row, the Oklahoma City Thunder have lost a key piece of their team in the postseason. Forward Serge Ibaka is expected to miss the rest of the playoffs after injuring his left calf against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night, as the team announced Friday:

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News: MRI confirms Serge Ibaka suffered left calf injury during last night's game. He is expected to miss remainder of the 2014 postseason.

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) May 16, 2014
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 Thunder general manager Sam Presti identified the plantaris part of the calf as the problematic area, per Yahoo Sports' Marc J. Spears:

Juan Ocampo/Getty Images

Presti said that the reason for such a long layoff is to prevent the injury from cropping up again, per The Oklahoman's Anthony Slater:

The Oklahoma City GM is refusing to use the injury as any potential excuse, per Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman:

This is reminiscent of last year, when Russell Westbrook went down in the first round against the Houston Rockets. The Thunder must have done something to really upset the basketball gods to have this happen two postseasons in a row.

While Ibaka isn't as important to the team as Westbrook was/is, he still plays a large role, and his absence will be seriously felt as OKC moves on to the Western Conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs.

NBA insider David Aldridge pointed out that no other Thunder player is equipped to hurt the Spurs inside:

Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said he still remembers when the power forward went 11-of-11 from the field and scored 26 points in Game 4 of the 2012 Western Conference finals against San Antonio, per ESPN's Marc Stein:

This injury illustrates just how difficult it can be to win an NBA title. The Thunder, for all intents and purposes, have the pieces to take home a championship.

But all of that can go up in smoke if the wrong player goes down.

While it's much too early to write OKC off completely, what was bound to be a tough series against San Antonio just became infinitely more difficult for the Thunder.