Suns try Hack-a-Perk, Scott Brooks not a fan of the strategy

Trailing by 15 with 4:55 remaining, the Suns were watching the   Thunder run away from them in the fourth quarter and with it, maybe   taking their playoff hopes with them. Alvin Gentry was desperate and so   he busted out a tactic I haven’t seen in a while.

Intentionally foul the other team’s bad free throw shooting big man.

It didn’t really work as Kendrick Perkins made five of six from the line. Scott Brooks said after the game he was fine with their strategy , but it’s not something he would do.

“I’m  comfortable with any of our guys shooting free throws,” Brooks  told  reporters. “We work on it every day. Guys have a lot of  confidence, and I  have confidence in them. It’s good for us, we’re  going to step up and  make those shots. They’re free, and it puts a lot  of pressure on them  because now they have to score.

“You can’t give up free shots; a  foul is not a good defense in my  book. But that’s not my decision to  make, and I like the fact that Perk  went up there and knocked them in.”

Perk on the other hand didn’t blame them.

“(Shoot), I would too if I was them,” Perkins told Pro Basketball   Talk. “Yeah, the way I’ve been struggling from the line, it’s the best   chance for them to get back in the game. But I’ve got to take it upon   myself, step up and hit the free throws, and just go from there. I   probably would have done the same thing.”

Perk is about a 60  percent free throw shooter but with the Thunder  (before last night) was  hitting just 36 percent from the line. And he  had gone just 2-13 the  past few games.

The Thunder are one of the top free throw shooting teams not just in  the league, but in league history. Currently, they’re only second at  82.1 percent behind the 2002-03 Dallas Mavericks (82.9 percent). Perkins is obviously hurting them some in that regard.

Question is, could he hurt them even more when the games get more  important? Is this a strategy we could see  other teams use in the  postseason? Probably not because of the rule  changes that prevent teams  from doing it in the closing minutes of a  game, but if OKC is up 10  with four minutes left, would someone dare try  it?

Doesn’t matter as long as Perk does what he did last night. Step up and knock them down.