Watching the Thunder last night, I saw a ton of times where Ibaka, Durant and either Collison or Perk were on the floor where Denver would take a shot and before it even hit the rim everybody would run back on defense. I have noticed this in several other games too, not just this one, but it is was especially prevelant last night.
My theory is that against certain teams the opposing team knows their chances of getting an offensive rebound so they don't really try that hard to get one and risk being out of position in transition.
When teams are playing the celtics they smell blood in the water and know if they send 2 guys to the boards they probably have at least a 20% chance of getting an O-reb. I think that what the Perkins trade may have really done is take that fear out of the celtics opponents because Perk was also good at getting the ball to Rondo quickly so he could punish teams in transition. Thoughts?
The Perkins trade had nothing to do with being outrebounded by the Knicks. First, as mentioned, the rebounding numbers are very similar pre and post Perkins.
Second, and most important, the reason the celtics were outrebounded was not due to the center position, as Turiaf and his 3 rebounds were largely irrelevant. The main issue is that the Knicks went small and crashed the boards while shooting poorly. Lots of opportunities + our big men on the bench or chasing wing players on the perimeter. Perkins would not even be out there on game 2, as I doubt Doc would have him guarding Walker or Jeffries.
