Perkins criticizes Thunder after win

Kendrick Perkins smiled. This much is verifiable from eyewitness accounts. The sight of little Nate Robinson(notes) throwing in a 3-pointer was enough to melt even the meanest scowl in the NBA, if only for a moment.

But the 3-pointers kept flying, the Oklahoma City Thunder kept laughing, the fans continued to howl and, well, this was about when Perkins vowed to use all this youthful exuberance as one more teaching point. The Thunder had already run the Memphis Grizzlies out of the gym, turning a tense Game 5 into an eventual 99-72 rout. The benches had emptied. The game was all but over. And, still, the Thunder continued to cheer every shot.

“We have to end the game with better class than that,” Perkins would later say after the Thunder’s locker room had nearly emptied. “That’s too disrespectful in my eyes. That’s not what the Thunder are about. … I think we were too flashy.”
Three reporters and one camera crew greeted him after he dressed late Wednesday. No one asked about the end-of-game antics. No one thought to ask. Perkins raised the issue on his own because he had one more lesson to impart to his young teammates:

“We haven’t done nothin’.”
“Getting past the second round is not one of our goals anyway,” Perkins said. “It’s just a … stepping point.”
“You got a lot of young guys here,” Robinson said. “They live life on the edge. Perk balances them out.”

After Oklahoma City lost the opener of this series, it was Perkins who persuaded Durant to gather the team at his house the following night and address any lingering issues. And with Westbrook weathering criticism whenever his shot volume surpasses that of Durant, Perkins has continued to work to steady the team.

“It’s kind of hard to get guys to buy into roles at a young age because … you got goals as an individual, whether it’s to make the All-Star Game or whatever it may be,” Perkins said.

“I think we played tonight with no agendas.”