Thunder big Kendrick Perkins struggled through injury in the NBA finals - NBA Report
Oklahoma City Thunder centre Kendrick Perkins was amongst the lot who succumbed to nagging injuries in this shortened season. He continued to struggle with the niggles in the post season; however such is the importance of the Thunder
front court star that he played through injuries in the NBA Finals.
Perkins suffered from a partially injured groin in the final game of the opening round of the playoffs against the Dallas Mavericks. The centre however returned in the Western Conference semi finals against the Los Angeles Lakers
and also against the San Antonio Spurs in the Conference Finals. The injury worsened along the way, but KP continued to defend the paint against the mighty Miami Heat, albeit in a losing cause;
Thunder never revealed Perkins injury while the season was in progress, but it has now been learnt that the big was indeed braving through a groin injury.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo sports recently reported;
“Oklahoma City centre Kendrick Perkins played the final three playoff rounds with a partially torn groin”
Perkins kept on displaying his solid performance and despite the injury, his stats improved throughout in the latter half of the season. He averaged 3.8 points, 6.3 boards in the first round. But after the injury, coming into the
conference semi-finals, he averaged 4 points and 5.6 boards. Then in the conference finals against San Antonio Spurs, he averaged 6.2 boards and 5.8 points.
Perkins performances however degraded in the NBA Finals against the Heat. He was found wanting against a super athletic Miami team, and so unimpressive were his performances that there was pressure on Scott Brooks to start with
a small line up. Brooks however persisted with Perkins in the lineup and the result was disastrous.
While Serge Ibaka had to move towards LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, Perkins failed to handle the paint alone and was continuously out thought by the swift passing Miami side. Battling through injuries, Perkins was often unable
to contest Miami shots and was one of the reason Oklahoma City failed to reduce the floor spacing created by the Heat.
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