Kendrick Perkins wants to show up for training camp at 265 pounds, 20 pounds lighter than he is now. He's hired a nutritionist and is planning to get to work right away, spending most of his time working out in Houston with former coach John Lucas II.

In the back of Perkins' mind is something former teammate and forever mentor Kevin Garnett once told him. It's what will fuel the Thunder's big man during these summer months.

“He said you'll see who really got love for the game once they get their money,” Perkins said. “It's certain guys that get paid and they just stop working. I'm not going to be one of those guys.”

Minutes after Kevin Durant’s season ended with another closing-time loss to the Dallas Mavericks, ESPN’s Mark Schwarz seemed to be asking him if seeing Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki return to the NBA Finals offered any consolation. The implication: Be happy for Dirk because he’s suffered more disappointment.

"Um, not happy at all (chuckles, followed by a wide smile and laughter in the room)," said Durant.

"I’m a competitor, man. You know, I really didn’t care about what he went through the last four years. I know it’s been tough for him, you know. He lost three of the .. four years in the first round. I’m sure he’s happy now he’s going back to the Finals, but I’m not happy for him at all because I wanted to be there. But it happens like that.”

With a 100-96 victory at American Airlines Center in Game 5, the Dallas Mavericks advanced to the NBA Finals for the second time in franchise history.

Shawn Marion had 26 points and eight rebounds, while Dirk Nowitzki also scored 26.

When Nowitzki was handed the Western Conference trophy, he didn't seem keen on holding it for very long.

“We talked about it, obviously, after the game that this is a great moment and we can enjoy it for a day,’’ Nowitzki said. “But we’ve got one of those trophies already and it didn’t mean anything at the end.’’

After Oklahoma City's morning shootaround at American Airlines Center, Thunder star Kevin Durant bristled at any notion that Mavericks forward Shawn Marion is doing anything special to limit Durant's scoring.

"I'm not playing one-on-one," Durant said. "I could see if he was totally locking me up and I would get in the post and he would block my shots and steal the ball, but I'm not playing one-on-one.

"Every time I get the ball, it's one-on-two, one-on-three. And as you know as a little kid, you can't play like that. So I'm passing the basketball and trying to find open spots. He's a good defender, but, sorry, it's not just him."

On the biggest play of the series, the final play of regulation, Kevin Durant caught the ball at halfcourt, but when he looked toward the basket, he saw three Mavs coming at him.

So, he shot from at least 8 feet behind the three-point line.

“I didn't know what else to do,” he said, the frustration obvious in his voice. “I didn't want to run into their defense and get another turnover.”

Instead, Marion blocked the shot, and even though there was overtime left to play, the Thunder was sunk.
“You know, late in the game, it's my time,” Durant said, unmoving with his fist planted on his temple. “And a few of those times, it was just too clogged up.”

Durant scored 14 points in the first quarter but then managed only 15 points the rest of the game.

Mavs center Tyson Chandler is a nightmare matchup for Kendrick Perkins.

The 7-foot-1 Chandler is one of the most athletic big men in the league, and Perkins, a more plodding, traditional center, has had problems containing him.

In three games, Perkins has scored 15 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked three shots in 82 minutes. Chandler scored the same number of points in Game 2 alone, and in Game 3, Chandler pulled down one more rebound than Perkins has corralled all series.
The evidence runs even deeper.

In Perkins' 82 minutes of playing time, Oklahoma City has been outscored by 32 points. With Perkins on the bench, Oklahoma City has outscored the Mavs by 23. Furthermore, with Chandler on the court, Perkins' plus/minus per 36 minutes is minus-17.7, according to NBA.com's StatsCube data.

Perkins has the worst plus/minus of any Thunder player in this series.

Kendrick Perkins said the Thunder struggled with trust issues in its Game 3 loss to the Mavericks.

“Tonight, we didn't trust each other,” said Perkins. “We just got to have trust in each other. That's the bottom line.”

But Perkins continued.

“When we get down, I don't like our body language,” Perkins said. “We got to do a better job of holding our heads up and continuing to keep pushing.”

Oklahoma City's 15-point first-quarter deficit grew to 23 in the first two minutes of the second period.

Russell Westbrook's angry bench tirade late in the third quarter of Game 2 of the Western Conference finals Thursday night stemmed from a botched play, according to a person with direct knowledge of the incident.

In the closing minute of the third quarter of Oklahoma City's 106-100 victory against Dallas, Westbrook made a play call that his teammates failed to run properly. When the play broke down, Westbrook made a one-on-one move that resulted in a turnover.
Thunder coach Scott Brooks promptly took Westbrook, who had four turnovers, out of the game. Brooks slapped the All-Star point guard on his backside as he walked by.

Westbrook turned around and glared at the court. Then, when Brooks walked toward him and made a comment, Westbrook yelled, "I'm trying to run the [expletive] play, man."

Westbrook continued yelling on the bench for roughly a minute -- saying, "Tell them to run the [expletive] play," according to the source -- prompting assistant coach Maurice Cheeks to console him as play continued.

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle ranked the Thunder ahead of his team’s first two opponents in the playoffs.

“I think it’s important to point out that this is the best team we’ve played in the playoffs,” Carlisle said. “They’re better than the Lakers and they’re  better than Portland. And I think the numbers bear that out. They’re scoring 109 points a game on us. So I think it’s important to recognize them. And we’ve got to attack this team very aggressively because they are good.”

The Mavericks beat the Trail Blazers in six games and swept the two-time defending champion Lakers in the conference semifinals. But the Thunder already has done something neither of those two more seasoned opponents could and that’s win at American Airlines Center.

So Carlisle’s praise for the Thunder is clearly more than just coach-speak or gamesmanship.

“Right now they are a better basketball team,” he continued. “They’re in the Western Conference finals. They’re scoring on us at a high rate. I look at how we’ve fared against all three opponents and this is our toughest challenge.”

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, there have been more than 2,500 instances of a player in the shot clock era (since 1954-55) taking at least 25 true shot attempts in a playoff game.

Among those games, Dirk Nowitzki's 93.9 percent in Game 1 was the highest true shooting percentage, by far. Next closest was Vince Carter’s true shooting percentage of 82.5 from his 50-point game in the 2001 playoffs against thePhiladelphia 76ers.

Expanding the sample in which a player had 25 true shot attempts in either a regular season or playoff game since 1996-97, there are more than 8,500 such instances. Incredibly, Nowitzki’s Game 1 is still the highest in that span, beating out Ray Allen’s 90.1 mark from a 2002 regular-season game against the Charlotte Hornets, in which Allen scored 47 points on 15-for-23 shooting from the floor and 7-for-7 from the free throw line.

Nowitzki shot 12-for-15 from the field and 24-for-24 from the free throw line in the Mavericks' 121-112 victory in Dallas.