Cleveland Cavaliers center Kendrick Perkins embraces physical play on the basketball court, and that was his mission when he walked onto the floor in the team's 101-93 series-clinching Game 4 victory against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden in Boston Sunday.
With 1:44 to play in the first half, Perkins went to set a screen on Boston forward Jae Crowder to free up LeBron James and delivered a crushing blow to Crowder above the shoulders. Subsequently, Crowder sprung to his feet and confronted Perkins. The veteran NBA center pushed Crowder in the face before players, coaches and officials could break up the situation.
Perkins and Crowder were assessed double technical fouls for the post-screen dustup. Perkins also received a flagrant-one foul for the illegal screen, and was fined $15,000 by the NBA on Monday.
"It wasn't nothing," Perkins said after the win. "I went out to set a screen, a hard pick. It was an offensive foul. You know, things happen. Guys get tangled up. You have a couple words exchanged, and then, you move on."
Perkins' illegal screen against Crowder came one quarter after the Cavaliers lost power forward Kevin Love due to a dislocated left shoulder suffered when he fought for a loose ball against Celtics forward Kelly Olynyk six minutes into the game.
During the game, Love's shoulder "was assessed, reduced in the locker room and immobilized," the Cavaliers said in a press release. Upon the team's return to Cleveland, he was examined further and underwent both X-rays and an MRI, which revealed what the team called "an acute anterior inferior glenohumeral dislocation with the corresponding ligament/labrum tearing and humeral head bone bruising."
Love is said to be "undergoing training room treatments while additional opinions are being obtained and treatment options being explored. An update on Love's condition will be given in "the next several days," but he has been ruled out for the entire Eastern Conference semifinals series against either the Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks.
However, Perkins insisted the screen on Crowder was not "a retaliation" against the Celtics for Love's injury.
"I really came in because we had foul trouble, K-Love got hurt," Perkins said. "A couple minutes were there for me to just go in and play. I didn't go in with the intention of sending a type of message. I was just playing my game. That's me every day."
Although Perkins' illegal screen set off a dustup, his Cavaliers teammates felt the 6-foot-10, 270-pound 11-year veteran center was sticking up for them by matching Boston's physicality.
"You just stay under control, that's all we can do," James said. "We have this small period of time to get better, and it's next man up, depending on what goes on with our team. That's two big pieces obviously, but next man up, no excuses. You just get ready to go on and play."
Point guard Kyrie Irving added, "He's definitely one of our veterans that we've leaned on. He's playoff tested, has a championship, knows what it takes and knows his role. I take care of Big Perk, and Big Perk takes care of us. It's just as simple as that. He knows what he's supposed to do. We just lean on him. When things get a little chippy, we all know one person in this room that is going to come in and stop all that, and that's Big Perk for us. He's going to continue to do what he does."
