Kendrick Perkins is not in the business of softening the blow. After the Oklahoma City Thunder took a 3-2 series lead over the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, the former NBA champion turned ESPN analyst delivered a verdict on Game 5’s most-watched player.
“Wemby got punked last night,” Perkins said on Get Up. “Isaiah Hartenstein, I played him on both ends of the floor. And Jaylen Williams, they did a great job of touching him up from start to finish.”
Perkins’ case was as much about positioning as physicality. Victor Wembanyama, he argued, has been trying to fight on the perimeter when he should have set up in the post.
“When I saw Wemby come out and want to be a guard, I said it was going to be a long night for him,” Perkins said. “When he decides to be a big man first with guard skills is when he dominated. But all night long, they were touching him up. He was not able to just get to his spots. He didn’t have free runs. When you have that type of physicality over the course of the game, it’s going to wear on you.”
Wembanyama shot 4-of-15 in Game 5 — his worst playoff shooting performance in 15 career playoff games — and allowed the Thunder to shoot 11-of-16 as the primary defender. His minutes have climbed too. Perkins noted that the Frenchman is averaging 38 in the playoffs against 29 in the regular season. That is a meaningful jump for a 22-year-old in his first deep postseason run.
Michael Wilbon, sitting alongside Perkins, made the larger call. He picked the Thunder to close it out.
“It’s a grind,” Wilbon said, reaching back to the 2010 Finals. “I remember sitting on the sideline, and I remember Kobe, KG, Paul Pierce — nobody could hit a shot in the second half, but everybody was just thugging it out. It’s about your will when you get to this point. It’s not about schemes, X’s and O’s — it’s about who wanted it the most.”
Wilbon went further on Wembanyama’s support cast.
“You’re talking about a guy that’s a number-one option,” Wilbon said. “The more modern examples — Magic had Kareem. Duncan had Robinson. They had running mates, they had guys who had been there and done it. Wembanyama is probably, if you watch it, they depend on him for as much as I can ever think of any team depending on any one person.”
Get Up host Mike Greenberg and reporter Monica McNutt pushed back on the certainty.
“We’ve seen highs and lows from OKC,” McNutt said. “Yes, they are the defending champs, they have won the 16 games required to be the last team standing, but they’re still navigating injuries. As big as Jared McCain was last night, is that going to be consistent?”
Vinny Goodwill split the difference: Spurs in six. Perkins doubled down: Thunder in six. Wilbon picked OKC in seven.
For Perkins, the lesson for Wembanyama is one he learned the hard way from Hall of Famers he sat next to in Boston.
“Magic, Duncan — end of list. Everybody else had to learn the hard way,” Perkins said. “Wemby is going to learn, and the hard way. He’s going to have to learn how to make the game easier for himself. You don’t learn that through regular-season basketball. You learn that through the cauldron of the playoffs and understanding what teams take away from you.”
Perkins also tipped his cap to a Thunder role player who, in his view, has been the most valuable man on the floor.
“Alex Caruso has been the best player in Oklahoma City in this series,” Perkins said. “If the conference finals end and OKC wins, I believe he should get the everybody-vote for MVP. He is a top-five role player in the history of the game.”
San Antonio answered with Game 6 — De’Aaron Fox dropped 51 and Wembanyama set the Spurs’ single-game playoff scoring record — but Perkins’ diagnosis of the fatigue and Hartenstein’s physical toll travels with the series back to Paycom Center for Game 7. The cauldron is still hot.
