hunder forward Serge Ibaka finished one block and two rebounds away from a defensive double-double against the Denver Nuggets in Game 5 on Wednesday night.

The youngest player on the NBA's youngest playoff roster, the 21-year-old Ibaka had a career-high nine blocked shots, plus eight rebounds and just one point. …

"My game is every time not just offense, you know," Ibaka said inside the OKC locker room after midnight. "Some games, I come out with good offense – the last two or three games. Some games, is the offense. Something I can do every day is my defense. Offense? Some days, yes. Everybody can have bad day or good day. On defense, I can't come out 80-90 percent every night to do my defense. That is why I will stay focused."

Ibaka leads the playoffs in blocked shots with 4.8 per game. Chicago's Joakim Noah is next at 2.6.

Midway through the first half of Monday's Game 4 loss at Denver, the Thunder's All-Star duo of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook reportedly had a heated exchange during a timeout. TNT sideline reporter Pam Oliver reported the verbal dispute during the game.

On Tuesday, the Thunder insisted the jawing was positive.

“It was all about trying to do the right thing,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “We got to get a stop. That's what it was about. We got to stop the ball. Their point guards are getting inside the paint. The bigs and the guards have got to do a better job of stopping the basketball. That's what the conversation was about.

“It's funny because it's in the playoffs on national TV, but it happens a lot. It doesn't happen every timeout every game. But guys are emotional. Guys care about what we do and they express that and I like that. I do the same thing.”

Durant also downplayed the incident.

“We've been doing that all season,” Durant said. “That's a part of a basketball team. You're not going to always be happy all the time. … Sometimes you have to scream at guys for them to get the point. That's what we were doing.”

In two games versus Oklahoma City, Nene is shooting 72 percent on layups and dunks. Outside of the paint, Nene has hit just 3-of-8 jump shots, including 0-for-4 in Game 2. (He was 12-of-18 from the free-throw line in Game 2).

"One thing about him is he's an aggressive player," Perkins said. "I think we've just got to do a better job on our pick-and-roll defense as far as when he's rolling to the basket. But we're going to keep being physical with him, we're going to keep playing him hard.

"We want him taking contested jump shots. He's averaging over 60 percent when he's in the paint and right at 40 percent outside the paint. So that's what we'll try to do."

Since March 8, Kevin Durant has read passages each day from the black leather Bible he carries with his name engraved on the front cover.

Durant carried his Bible with him to his press conference following Game 1, along with his cell phone and sunglasses.

“I just want to grow spiritually with the Lord,” Durant said. “It's something I always talked about, but I never really got into it.”

More than half the members of the Thunder attend chapel before each game.

Nuggets guard Aaron Afflalo said he would play in Game 3 versus Oklahoma City.

"Yeah," Afflalo said. "You can write that one up."

Afflalo, who averaged 12.6 points this season, is one of the Nuggets' better defensive players. He has aggravated his left hamstring numerous times in the past two months, admitting that he has come back too soon from rehabbing the strain.

"I can get out on the court; that's not the issue. The issue is letting it heal so I don't have to get off the court," Afflalo said. "If it's not healed, if you make the wrong move, you're back to square one. I just didn't want that to happen now."

But now, with the season on the line, Afflalo feels it's necessary to give playing a shot.

"This ain't about me coming back to save the day, either," he said. "I'm going to get out there and ride with them. That's as much watching as I'm going to do for the rest of this season. . . . I'm just going to create a positive atmosphere for guys on the court."

• Oklahoma City Thunder 106, Denver Nuggets 89

The Thunder joined the Heat, Celtics, Mavericks and Bulls in the up two games to nil column with a convincing, well-balanced victory over Denver.

Denver adjusted onto Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook following their Game 1 explosion, but the Thunder countered with strong offensive performances from Serge Ibaka, James Harden and Nick Collison.

The 54-31 rebounding differential was also huge for Oklahoma City, as they scored 24 second-chance points compared to just 10 for Denver.

The Nuggets just can’t effectively go small and quick against the Thunder and is why this was probably the worst possible matchup for them in the first round.

• San Antonio Spurs 93, Memphis Grizzlies 87

We knew Marc Gasol would regress to the mean and that the Spurs would have a better solution for defending Zach Randolph, but Gregg Popovich still needed Manu Ginobili’s return to prevent the series falling apart into an 0-2 deficit. 

Ginobili was a modest 5-for-13 from the floor, but his ability to get to the line 13 times was a big factor for the Spurs. Ginobili, Tim Duncan, Richard Jefferson and George Hill all scored 16 or 17 points apiece.

• Los Angeles Lakers 87, New Orleans Hornets 78

Even though Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol combined for just 19 points, the Lakers made significant adjustments to their defense to slow down Chris Paul.

The Hornets committed 16 turnovers one game after limiting themselves to three and the Lakers converted those into 22 points.

The Lakers also dominated the points in the pain battle, outscoring New Orleans by a margin of 50-32.

Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti announced that the team has recalled guard/forward Robert Vaden from the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League.

Vaden, who helped lead the 66ers to the D-League semifinals, averaged 16.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 32.3 minutes in four postseason games for the 66ers. During the regular season, he averaged 10.4 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 28.0 minutes in 45 games (17 starts).

Sports Illustrated asked 166 NBA players who they would want shooting with the game on the line.

Kobe Bryant led the way with 74 percent, followed by Kevin Durant (8 percent), Dwyane Wade (3 percent) and then Ray Allen and Dirk Nowitzki with 2 percent each.  

Kenyon Martin was outspoken about the Nuggets’ defense on Kevin Durant, who scored 41 points in Game 1.

“Make him (pass it to) some one else. If you have him and Westbrook on the court the same time, make Thabo Sefolosha and Serge Ibaka make plays. Run somebody at these guys. I don’t agree with (one-on-one) – we don’t let Kobe play one-on-one when we play him, no matter where he is on the court, so why would you let Kevin Durant play one-on-one.”

Martin believes that Denver’s small guards should not be the ones defending Durant.

“He shot right over Ray (Felton) like there was nobody guarding him,” Martin elaborated on Monday. “It doesn’t matter who you are, even if you’re the toughest defender in the world, (if you’re 6-1), he’s going to shoot right over him. You got to try something different, run somebody at him. Pick-and-roll? Jump on him. For three games, he’s been having his way with us – and I’m not comfortable with it.”

The Oklahoma City Thunder learned its lesson on how not to guard Nuggets center Nene on Sunday night.

“I think we really look at it as our team needs to do a better job on stopping his easy catches,” said Brooks after Thunder’s practice today. “He was getting in transition. I thought he had three or four buckets in transition, and that’s not on Perk, that’s on our team’s defensive transition scheme.”

Brooks wants his troops to be more physical with the Nuggets’ big man.

“We just have to push him off his spot,” Brooks said. “He had a lot of points around the basket. We all know that’s what he does very well. He leads the league in percentage and he’s not taking 19-footers to get that percentage. He’s a great scorer around the rim and we have to push him off of that area that he’s comfortable at, which is not easy to do. He’s a man down there, he’s strong. We have to fight him better. I feel that we have to do a much better job of that.”