With the Eastern Conference all but over, basketball fans look to the West for some entertaining close games.

It's no surprise that the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are battling it out for a chance to dethrone the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. The last two seasons, the Heat have defeated both the Thunder and the Spurs in the championship. Currently, the Spurs lead the Thunder 2-1 after three games and have a chance to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. However, Serge Ibaka returned to the starting lineup in game three and sparked a Thunder victory.

So who's got the edge?

Unfortunately for the Spurs, the Thunder have the edge for a number of reasons.

The first and most glaringly obvious reason is Serge Ibaka. The 6-foot-10 power forward is by far the best defensive player on his team and maybe the best in this series. Sometimes there's just a bad match-up. For whatever reason, Tim Duncan has had enormous issues with Ibaka this season, especially scoring the basketball. In games one and two, the Spurs offense scored an outstanding 122 and 112 points routing the Thunder to take a 2-0 series advantage. Game three however was a different story with Ibaka back in the lineup. In game three, the Spurs would score 97 points, much of it coming in garbage time with bench players in the game.

The Spurs remain winless against Ibaka this season at 0-5.

Another factor to include is home-court advantage as the home team so far in this series is 3-0. Not only is the home team undefeated in this series, but the Spurs haven't shown they can win in Oklahoma in quite some time. The Thunder have defeated the Spurs eight consecutive home games, and yes, game four will be played in Oklahoma.

The third issue facing the Spurs is Tony Parker. Duncan has been the backbone of this Spurs team since the late '90s, but Parker is the engine that makes this team run now. Parker has had his issues with Russell Westbrook in the past in this point guard match-up before. Parker has been benched several times by coach Gregg Popovich for dribbling too often and using too much of the shot clock. The good news for the Spurs is Manu Ginóbili is playing like an all star again.

Game four is not a must win for the Spurs, but it is for the Thunder. Thunder know they can't go down 3-1 and come back. They did overcome a 2-0 series deficit to the Spurs in 2012, but 3-1 may be too much. Game four tips off 9:00 p.m. EST on TNT.

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