Posts Tagged ‘Kendirck Perkins’

Thunder Roll, Put Mavericks On Notice

May 4, 2012  ·  9:48AM





HANG TIME PLAYOFF HEADQUARTERS – Don’t let the designer Poindexter glasses fool you. Thunder stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook see just fine.

They can see through the playoff matrix already, just three trips into the postseason in their young careers.

Clearly, the Thunder do not plan on waiting their turn. They also won’t be deferring to their elders, as their 95-79 Game 3 destruction of the defending champion Mavericks Thursday night at American Airlines Center serves as proof.

Durant’s shooting touch came back — he had 15 points 12 minutes in — was 8-for-10 and had 21 points by halftime and finished with a game-high 31 points. Westbrook did as he pleased and the Mavericks still do not have anyone on the roster capable of shutting him down. And the Thunder, from Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka and Nick Collison up front to James Harden, Derek Fisher and Thabo Sefolosha in the backcourt, are proving that they are the deeper, stronger, more resilient and a just plain better team.

“We wanted to focus on being solid, keeping it simple, hit singles and not home runs and I thought we did that,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “That’s important, because sometimes we get a little excited. And that’s good, because they are very excitable. But when we talk about playing our basketball and improving everyday, we have to think simple. Sometimes it’s challenging to coach simple with our guys but it’s important to focus on that.”

A 3-0 hole in a playoff series is the ticket for any team to get off the postseason ride, even the defending champs. The Mavericks know this better than anyone, having handed the same ticket to the Lakers last year in the Western Conference semifinals.

Now here they are, 48 minutes away from the same fate.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Playoffs / Comments (45) /

Making Sense Of The World Peace Mess

April 25, 2012  ·  9:34AM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – The NBA’s deans of discipline handed down a most appropriate fine for Metta World Peace‘s elbow to James Harden‘s head that caused a concussion and 48 hours of on unnecessary pain and suffering for the game of basketball.

Lakers fans might not feel that way, but if they remove those purple-and-gold-colored glasses for just a minute, they’ll realize that justice was served in this instance.

Unlike some hardliners, we saw no reason for World Peace to suffer through a 10-game suspension or the lifetime ban some were calling for (yes, we’ve read all of your comments and emails on the subject). That would have been excessive, even for a player with as checkered a past as World Peace.

It’s clear the league took into account all of the good deeds he’s done and the way, up until Sunday at least, he’s conducted himself within the lines the past few seasons. NBA Commissioner David Stern could have dropped the hammer on World Peace this time and met with little resistance in the court of public opinion outside of Lakerland.

Unlike World Peace, someone took the time to consider all of the options instead of just reacting in the heat of the moment. Instead of listening to the tide of discontent surrounding this latest act and using his extensive history of running afoul of the league’s code of conduct for all players, someone at the league office decided not to make an example of World Peace when they so easily could have.

Seven games might seem harsh to some, but in this day and age of bounties in the NFL and the like, seven games seems more than appropriate. And the Lakers’ acceptance of the penalty (and their continued support of World Peace) would indicate that they recognize as much and ready to try to move on from this incident.

And to his credit, World Peace did the classy thing and apologized to the Thunder and their fans for what happened on his website. Despite suggestions to the contrary, he is fully aware of what went down and seems genuinely contrite for allowing his emotions to get the best of him yet again. We’re not here to condemn the man for that. In fact, we applaud him for recognizing that and handling himself the right way now.

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Posted in HT News / Comments (159) /

Thunder On Championship Path?

March 16, 2011  ·  5:14PM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – When the Heat and Thunder square off tonight in Miami (8 p.m. ET on ESPN), it’ll serve as a bit of a test for both sides.

The Heat get to test their mettle against another one of the league’s “elite” squads and the Thunder get a chance to prove that they most definitely belong in the mix of said elite.

My main man Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman added a little twist to the festivities for the Thunder by posing the question, just how far away from championship contention is this Thunder group? (particularly with Kendrick Perkins in tow):

“There’s no easy path to that level. You have to earn it by working every day,” said Thunder coach Scott Brooks, a member of the championship-winning 1994 Rockets. “We’re getting pieces to having a good team. Perk is another good piece to getting where we want to get to.”

Perkins joins a stable of young talent that is led by soon-to-be back-to-back scoring champ Kevin Durant and fellow All-Star Russell Westbrook. Together, despite both being just 22, they form the league’s third highest scoring duo. And they’re flanked by what appears to be the right blend of role players, a mix of veteran glue guys (Nick Collison and Thabo Sefolosha) and other young, untapped potential (James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Eric Maynor and Cole Aldrich).

“But it takes a lot of work, effort and good players,” Brooks said. “Not just one or two, it takes a team full of good players. And it takes some good fortune. We’re building our team with some good players. We want to keep working and keep improving. I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but we think like champions. We do everything like a champion.”

We’ll see tonight if they compete like champions, because this is the time of year that your championship timber really needs to show (especially when you face another member of the elite crew). Our friends in Miami have shown in the past few days that they are more than capable of facing a little adversity and resuming their title quest. Now we get to see how the thunder stacks up. And if their previous matchup (video above) is any indication, we should be in for a treat tonight.

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Perkins In The Clear For Game 6

May 27, 2010  ·  12:56PM

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Posted by Sekou Smith

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Kendrick Perkins is good to go for the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The NBA announced that his second technical foul (with 36.1 seconds to play before halftime) has been rescinded, helping him avoid an automatic suspension and keeping him in uniform. It also upgraded Paul Pierce’s foul in the fourth quarter from a personal foul to a Flagrant I foul.

As speculated here earlier today, there had to be some movement on at least one of Perkins’ techs.

The only problem with that (for the Celtics) is Perkins now has to be on his very best behavior to avoid getting his next technical. If he slips up and gets one in Game 6 … Perkins just better not slip up again.

Now, this is the part where Magic (Lakers and Suns) fans chime in with the conspiracy theory chants.

We’ve discussed it, debated and agreed to disagree about it here at the hideout.

No conspiracy. Just an honest to goodness fair decision on this one.

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Posted in Uncategorized / Comments (222) /