Scal: Bulls More Confident After Perkins Trade
BOSTON (CBS) - Bulls forward, and former Celtics fan favorite, Brian Scalabrine told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher and Rich the Bulls became more confident after the Celtics traded away Kendrick Perkins.
"As a whole our group is pretty excited about it," Scal said of the Bulls reaction to the trade. "In the league, I think people that are playing for a championship, whether it's us, the Lakers, or Orlando, they were pretty excited know that he's gone."
Listen: Toucher & Rich: Brian Scalabrine On Perkins Trade, Playoffs
"We've only lost three games since Kendrick got traded. We felt like we have an unbelievable opportunity when that happened," Scalabrine said. "In a nutshell, we felt more confident that we have an opportunity. The league comes down to two things, offensively and defensivley, it's going to come down to pick and roll defense. In my opinion, Kevin and Perkins were the best pick and roll defenders in the NBA. Now you lose one of those guys and now Kevin's responsible to do most of the work."
Read: Celtics Trade Perkins To Thunder
"We all feel like Kendrick did an unbelievable job at clogging the paint and intimidating the opponent," Scal said of his former teammate, now on the Oklahoma City Thunder. "If Jermaine can stay healthy, if Shaq can stay healthy maybe the trade doesnt effect them. But even a guy like Derek Rose, he was like 'Man, this is a big for me. I need to get to the basket, I can finish to the rim. Kendrick changes shots at the rim.'"
"The difference between the playoffs and the regular season, is all the ticky tacky... in the playoffs they don't call those fouls," Scal said. "He can meet you at the rim and they let those things go. When they let those fouls go he becomes super valuable for his team."
The Celtics and Bulls meet Thursday night in Chicago with the Bulls three games ahead of Boston for the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
