Kendrick Perkins

For the first time since undergoing knee surgery, Kendrick Perkins was back on the court for a practice with his Celtics teammates. He went through the non-contact, or skeleton, phase of practice and participated in the team’s warmup and stretching drills. It was a small step for Perkins, but an important one.

“Perk looked good for what he did,” Doc Rivers said. “Actually dunked a couple of times today. He’s in great shape and he’s worked so hard, so that’s good.”

“I felt all right,” Perkins said. “My timing was a little bit off. I thought I did pretty well for my first time out.”

Perkins had an MRI last week, which went well, and he is scheduled to have another one in early January. He was fitted for a brace last week, which has allowed him to do more work on the court. Once he got the brace he went out and dunked, “Just to make sure I still can,” he joked. The plan is for him to continue with non-contact practices for the next few weeks and then he will be reevaluated.

As for a more definitive timetable, Perkins isn’t there yet. “It’s hard to say,” he said. “I feel good. I haven’t had any setbacks. Really I’m just trying to keep moving forward. I’m actually surprised about how good I did out there today.”

Interestingly, Perkins said his doctor had originally pegged late January as a possible return date while he had the All-Star break in mind. But all that is purely speculation right now, and while the Celtics were happy to have him back on the court in any capacity, Rivers sounded a more realistic note.

“If we can get anything out of Perk this year, we’ll be thrilled,” Rivers said. “It usually takes a year after the surgery to be completely confident.”

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