Game 12: Thunder at Celtics

By Gary Dzen

January 16, 2012

1 minute to read

By Gary Dzen, Globe Staff

It’s all about Kendrick Perkins tonight as the hard-nosed former Celtics center makes his first return to Boston in an opposing uniform. He brings with him an Oklahoma City Thunder team that might be the best team in the Western Conference. They’re certainly playing like it so far. Perkins is averaging 5.7 points and 6 rebounds in about 26 minutes per game. He’s a thoughtful, emotional player who has expressed gratitude for the eight seasons he spent in Boston, and the home crowd should give that right back to their former big man tonight.

Tip-off: 8 p.m.
Records: Celtics (4-7), Thunder (11-2)
Broadcast info:TNT (no local TV broadcast tonight), WEEI 93.7 FM/850 AM (Sean Grande and Cedric Maxwell)

Probable starters:

Celtics:
PG: Rajon Rondo
SG: Ray Allen
SF: Paul Pierce
PF: Kevin Garnett
C: Jermaine O’Neal

Thunder:
PG: Russell Westbrook
SG: Thabo Sefolosha
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: Serge Ibaka
C: Kendrick Perkins

Injuries: Keyon Dooling and Chris Wilcox both missed shootaround this morning and are unlikely to play tonight.

Storylines:

Perk: There really won’t be much focus on anything else tonight as far as Celtics fans are concerned. Perkins was never a big scorer or rebounder, but he’s brought toughness to the OKC frontcourt. Everyone will be looking at Perkins vs. Jermaine O’Neal, but watch Perk and Kevin Garnett go at it. Does Perk make his teammates better defensively like KG used to make his? Will be fun to watch these two go at it.

Scoring: The Celtics have scored fewer than 90 points in each of their last five games, and they’ve lost four in a row.The Thunder just hung 104 points on the Knicks, and Kevin Durant is the league’s best scorer. The C’s are going to have to top 90 to win tonight.

Someone step up: Rajon Rondo will have the whole Russell Westbrook thing to motivate him, but someone, anyone, needs to step up for the Celtics. That’s usually Paul Pierce, but not this season, at least not yet. Kevin Garnett took 19 shots Saturday night vs. Indiana. That’s good! Take more. Get this offense going.