Well, That Explains A Lot: Perk’s Tendinitis Bothered Him For Months

Posted by Brian Robb on Mar 30, 2010 713921 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2010%2F03%2F30%2Fwell-that-explains-a-lot-perks-tendinitis-bothered-him-for-months%2FWell%2C+That+Explains+A+Lot%3A+Perk%27s+Tendinitis+Bothered+Him+For+Months2010-03-30+21%3A15%3A46Brian+Robbhttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D7139

More news is coming out of the C’s practice this afternoon in Waltham. Besides the Pierce injury update, Kendrick Perkins spoke for the first time after sitting out the past two contests with left knee tendinitis. Upon questioning, Perk shed more light on the extent of his knee trouble these past couple months. Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com provides us with the details in his terrific practice report:

“I felt alright, I thought I played pretty good at practice today,” said Perkins. “My knee felt better. I’m looking forward to going out there and playing [Wednesday].

“There’s a little bit [of stiffness]. It’s probably something I’ll have to deal with the rest of the season. I’ll continue to get treatment, continue to come in at night and get that treatment.”

Perkins also admitted he’s been battling the tendinitis for as much as two months before he finally took the advice of Rivers and the training staff and shut it down for the week. Perkins admitted it’s affected his game.

“I can’t get up and block shots like I want to, I can’t get up for the rebounds,” said Perkins. “But I’m out there, so I gotta get the job done. So I’m not making excuses, but I think it has [affected his play] in a way.”

And that’s why we love Perk. The guy refuses to make excuses for himself. This is also a bit of a relief if you are a Celtics fan, since well, it explains a lot about Perk’s performance, the last two months. Let’s check out his month by month splits for further confirmation.

So yeah….that explains, well everything.. Being one of those people who questioned aloud Perk’s regression during those two months, allow me to apologize to Perk for questioning him at all, while he was gutting it out through the pain.

I guess, the encouraging part of this disclosure, is the fact that Perk’s dropoff in play was due to his injury, rather than just inconsistent performance from many other members of this team.

As we enter the final few weeks of the season however, Perk also admitted that this is something that will likely bother him for the rest of the year. All that being considered, I guess my question is, if this injury had bothered Perkins for two months, is this something that the team’s staff could have/should have nipped in the bud earlier?

For now though, we can only hope Doc and company keeps the big man’s minutes down and hopefully rest him on the back end of those back to backs to end the year.

Screw the 3 seed, if it comes at the cost of keeping Perk fully rested and as healthy as physically possible. As we saw Sunday night against San Antonio, this team’s interior D relies on the big fella. And they will need him at his best, (or whatever rested level his best can be) come April.