ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins continued his verbal assault on the Houston Rockets. Perkins has been very critical of the Rockets this season, criticizing Alperen Sengun’s poor defense and calling out the team for not having chemistry.
And so after the Rockets blew a 13-point lead in overtime and lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-110 last Wednesday night, it was expected that “Big Perk” would go off on the Rockets again at the first chance. That’s what happened on the “Road Trippin'” podcast as he compared Houston to a laundromat.
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“You can wash, and you know one thing that they are going to do, they’re gonna fold. They are going to fold like clean sheets in the clutch,” said Perkins. “Did you see that s–t last night? That was a prime example.”
The Rockets blow a 13-point OT lead to lose the game
The Rockets and Wolves faced off at the Target Center last Wednesday in a battle of teams fighting for playoff positioning. Houston looked like they were gonna steal one in Minnesota after going on a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter to erase an 11-point deficit with three minutes left. But the Wolves forced overtime, and after allowing the Rockets to score 13 straight points in the extra period, they scored the last 15 points of the OT to win the game.
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“The body language is horrible. I swear I thought I was watching an AAU basketball team that don’t practice – my turn, my turn, my turn. I will give credit though, Sengun was okay, he did perform better. But Julius Randle in the clutch, which Minnesota needed, bust his a–. And KD, this is the second time over the last two, three weeks that he went to the free throw line and got those Megan Thee Stallion knees. He got to shake it, and he blew it. He blew the fu—n free throws,” he continued.
After Randle gave Minnesota a 110-108 lead, he was called for a foul on Durant with 3.3 seconds left in the game. But after making all of his first 10 free throw attempts in the game, Durant missed the first free throw and had no choice but to intentionally miss the second for a chance to tie the game. The Rockets couldn’t get off a shot.
Udoka is using Perk’s criticism as locker room fuel
With the loss, the Rockets fell to sixth in the Western Conference standings. They now trail the No. 3 Los Angeles Lakers by 3.5 games, the No. 4 Denver Nuggets by 2 games, and the Wolves are at No. 5, 1.5 games up on them. Although it’s still mathematically possible they could move up, Perkins doesn’t think that’s happening, given how Houston has been using his criticism to fuel the team.
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“Ime Udoka, you can keep showing my clips in the locker room to motivate your team, but guess what? If you need to show my clips on what I said on television to motivate your team, then your team might not just be it,” he added.
If the Rockets don’t get fired up after Perkins insulted them in this way, then maybe he is right about them. Before calling the Rockets a “laundromat”, the former Celtics big man also christened Sengun the nickname “No Interest” because he doesn’t like to play defense. Houston still has 10 regular-season games to prove Perk wrong.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Mar 27, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.