After banging knees with a Houston Rockets player in the last minutes of Oklahoma City's 96-95 loss to Houston on Wednesday, Thunder center Kendrick Perkins has been ruled out for Friday's game against the Golden State Warriors.
While the injury isn't considered that serious, Oklahoma City isn't taking any chances, especially before a stretch of five games in six days before the All-Star Game.
His absence shouldn't be much of a factor against the Warriors, who don't have a true center for Perkins to match up with and prefer to play a much more uptempo game than the 6'10 270 center is comfortable with.
However, the Thunder will probably need his bulk when they host the Denver Nuggets, and 6'11 250 center Nene, in a rematch of last year's first round series on Sunday.
With Perkins out, Oklahoma City could give more playing time to reserve C Cole Aldrich in the Golden State game.
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