Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins suffered a right hip sprain in the first quarter of Game 4 of his team’s NBA Playoffs series against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday.
Perkins played only eight minutes before he was rushed to the locker room to be examined and did not return to the game, hurting the Thunder's chances of converting a 4-0 sweep of the defending champion Mavericks.
Thunder coach Scott Brooks spoke to TNT’s Craig Sager after the first quarter, saying the injury hurts the team but it will continue to push on.
“We have enough to pick it up,” Brooks said. “Guys don’t have to play out of their minds. They just have to play solid basketball.”
Perkins previously suffered a knee injury while with the Celtics in the 2010 NBA Finals.
He was traded to the Thunder that offseason and didn’t play until late January of 2010-11, sitting out the first 43 games of the season. Oklahoma City would get its center into the lineup and make a playoff push that ended in the Western Conference Finals.
Perkins returned to shortened 2012 season healthy and missed only one game in his second year with the Thunder. He averaged 5.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in the regular season.
source: aol.sportingnews.com
