Kendrick Perkins Will Not Play In Game 7, Multiple Reports Confirm Torn MCL And PCL

Jun 16 5:20p by Ryan Hudson

Let's get the most important part out of the way: Kendrick Perkins will not play in Thursday night's Game 7, with coach Doc Rivers officially ruling him out Wednesday afternoon. The Celtics' center was seen at the Staples Center on crutches, with the knee heavily wrapped.

Perkins injured his right knee midway through the first quarter of Game 6 when he landed awkwardly and had his leg buckle underneath him.

"It's crazy," said Perkins. "I bang all the time and come out fine, and this time I get hurt. It's one of those plays you wish you could take back." [...]

"I don't want anybody to feel sorry for me," Perkins said. "It's an important game, it's not about me. It's about winning the title."

Now, as for the knee itself.

Rivers said that Perkins has not yet undergone an MRI on the knee, and won't until the team gets back to Boston on Friday, adding that "initial tests on Perkins showed enough damage to keep Perkins out of tomorrow night's game." The MRI will reveal just how severe the damage is, and for how long it will keep him out (it could be months).

Perhaps because of a lack of an MRI, there was some confusion at first as to which ligaments Perkins actually tore. At one point, the Boston Globe's online sports section had a headline of "torn ACL, PCL," while the story it linked to reported a torn MCL and PCL.

After some uncertainty, it seems that everyone is now on the same page, however, with Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix, Yahoo! Sports' Marc Spears, ESPN Boston's Chris Forsberg and the Boston Globe all reporting the same injury: it's a torn MCL and PCL for Kendrick Perkins. Which was the original report from Yahoo! Sports to begin with immediately after Tuesday nights game.