Even With Serge, Thunder Must Play Better

By Randy Renner

Thunder center Kendrick Perkins likes to refer to the big TV monitor the team uses to watch game tape as the "truth box."

Perk is a human version of the truth box, he always tells it like it is and this is what he had to say after Thunder practice on Friday.

Thunder center Kendrick Perkins speaks to reporters after a recent practice. Photo by Jeremy Griffin for InsideThunder.com

"At the end of the day we shouldn’t be getting beat this bad. In my opinion even if we’d of had Serge, especially in the last game, the way we played we still woulda lost the game"

The Thunder may not have been run outta town and embarrassed 112-77 like they were in Game 2 had Ibaka played but Perk's point is everyone needs to step up their game or the Thunder will be stepping out of these playoffs.

"We gotta do a better job individually," Perkins pointed out. "We haven’t even gave ourselves a chance and we better than that from top to bottom. From myself, Kevin, Russell, especially on the defensive end."

The Thunder have allowed the Spurs to shoot 53.8 percent overall in the first two games of the Western Conference Finals and 45 percent on 3-pointers. San Antonio is averaging 117 points per game.

Those numbers are all double digits higher than what OKC had allowed against Memphis and Los Angeles.

"It’s about being focused, they getting whatever they want, from the one man to the 10th man on the bench they gettin' whatever they want," Perk said shaking his head. "We gotta do a better job, individually and as a team. We can do it, we just gotta do it."

And Perk, the truth teller, warned he and his teammates can't get carried away by the excitement and the discussion surrounding Ibaka's possible return to maybe save the series.

"We’d like to have (Serge) back but to be honest with you we cant worry about that, I mean we down 0-2, we gotta worry about winning the next game at home, so you really cant put all your effort into if Serge comin back or is he not we still gotta go out and win this game and see if we can figure out why we getting beat so bad. That’s the point of emphasis."

And the biggest cloud that dims any ray of hope Ibaka's possible return could bring.