Kendrick Perkins has some strong words for Jonas Valanciunas
Cavaliers talking retaliation for future hard fouls on LeBron as Perkins sounds off on Raptors center.
By
Matt Moore
•
1 min read
It's really weird seeing Kendrick Perkins, who was a part of the Celtics teams who openly hated LeBron James with a passion and lived to ruin his postseason, sticking up for the King, but that's exactly what's happening now that Perkins is a Cavalier. After Jonas Valanciunas' hard foul on LeBron James Wednesday night, Perkins had words about the Raptors center and the need for retaliation in the future:
"(There are) time and places that you could get one off," said Kendrick Perkins, the Cavs' newly acquired backup center who is a card-carrying, on-court enforcer. "You've got to make sure it's the right time. At the end of the day you have to make sure you go out and play basketball.
"Obviously (Valanciunas) was trying to send a message because he had been getting beat all day on the pick-and-roll, and it happens, but it's just bull(crap) and it ain't cool."
via LeBron James: 'Maybe I've got to protect myself' after flagrant Raptors foul | cleveland.com.
That's the second incident James has had this week, after James Harden kicked him where the sun don't shine on Sunday.
Valanciunas (and the rest of the Raptors)were torched defensively on Wednesday, with the Raps giving up 125 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor. If you're not into metrics: that's bad. Really, really bad. These two teams are likely to meet in the playoffs and if they do, you can expect there to be more chippiness between these two. The Cavs are going to have to protect James, and Perkins is likely going to have to be the guy to do it. The rest of the roster doesn't have the experience to do so.
James said this week that he has to "protect himself more" from those kinds of fouls.
