Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
Not everyone is so fired up about Blake Griffin’s dunk over Oklahoma City big man Kendrick Perkins on Monday.
The Clippers star went down the lane, elevated, made contact with Perkins and then threw the ball down into the basket, the fingers on his outstretched hand grazing the rim. The play has been the talk of the league.
“I have no appreciation for it at all,” said Perkins’ Thunder teammate Kevin Durant. “It was a layup, I think. He threw the ball in and got fouled and made his free throw, so it was three points at the end of the day, no matter how it happened, how it went in the basket. I really wasn’t impressed. He finished it. So what? We’ve moved on.”
Durant wasn’t surprised the play gained so much attention.
“I wasn’t surprised because Blake is a poster child,” Durant said. “He dunks the ball a lot and makes spectacular plays. If it wasn’t against us, maybe I’d say it was a good play, but it was against us, so it was a bad play. I have nothing against Blake, don’t get me wrong. But it was against us, so I’ve got to stick up for my teammate.”
Mavericks swingman Vince Carter, who is still capable of putting a big man on a poster at the ripe old age of 35, definitely thought it was a great play, calling Griffin’s dunk “amazing.”
“That just shows the true athlete that he is,” said Carter, whose Mavs host the Thunder Wednesday night. “I look at and analyze things different. You got to think about the body control and what it takes to really, not only to just do that, but the impact you take from Kendrick Perkins, first of all, is a lot. For you to still have the body control to finish is second to none, because there’s not a lot of people that can really do that.”
Carter put Durant on the short list of guys in the league right now with that type of body control. Mavs big man Brendan Haywood, the victim of a vicious Durant and-1 dunk during the West finals last season, can testify to that.
But Durant seems to feel that dunk doesn’t get its due.
“I knew that wasn’t going to get attention because we never get attention like that,” Durant said. “We’re not an L.A. team or a Chicago team or a Miami team. All our plays get thrown under the radar.”
Thunder coach Scott Brooks said Perkins isn’t worried about being posterized.
“I’ve been around a lot of defensive-minded players. You’re going to get dunked on. There’s no way around it,” Brooks said. “There’s a lot of tremendous athletes in this league, but it doesn’t affect him. He’s going to come out and do the same thing tonight and guard the basket. That’s what he does for us. Let’s face it, I’m a fan of the game [and] that was a great play, but we move on.”
WRITTEN BY Tim MacMahon covers the Mavericks for ESPNDallas.com & FULL STORY HERE
Follow Tim MacMahon on Twitter:Â @espn_macmahon
