Kendrick Perkins: ‘We Didn’t Trust Each Other’

For the most part, the Thunder just didn’t look like the usual Thunder last night, and OKC center Kendrick Perkins thinks he knows why. Via the Oklahoman: “Dallas’ lead stood at 22 with 8 1/2 minutes left in the third period and was at 18 with 1:30 left on the third-quarter clock. OKC didn’t get it back to single digits until Russell Westbrook scored on a driving layup with 6:33 left to play. ‘It’s really tough to come back from 20 down,’ said Nick Collison. ‘You’re going to make a run and eventually they’re going to make some plays. You need to be almost perfect at that point when you get that big of a hole.’ The Thunder has toyed with this disturbing trend throughout the playoffs. Oklahoma City has trailed after one quarter in 11 of its 15 games this postseason. But this was as bad as it’s ever been. ‘Tonight, we didn’t trust each other,’ said Kendrick Perkins. ‘We just got to have trust in each other. That’s the bottom line.’ But Perkins continued. ‘When we get down, I don’t like our body language,’” Perkins said. ‘We got to do a better job of holding our heads up and continuing to keep pushing.’ For the first time this series, the Thunder couldn’t rely on Kevin Durant. He scored 24 points with 12 rebounds and five assists, but went just 7-for-22 from the field and missed all eight of his 3-point tries. Westbrook bounced back from a well-documented fourth-quarter “benching” in Game 2 to score a game-high 30 points on 8-for-20 shooting but had seven turnovers. This time, Westbrook played the entire second half and scored 14 points in the final frame.”