Perkins

BOSTON — Kendrick Perkins missed his second consecutive game last night after separating his surgically-repaired shoulder last week.

The 6-foot-10, 280-pound center said that he will not return to Boston’s lineup until early next week at the earliest.

“I was told to sit out a week so I guess I’m out until Monday,” said Perkins, who is averaging a career-best 8.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game this year.

Perkins saw Boston physician Brian McKeon about the injury and McKeon told him to rest his shoulder for at least a week.

“It does feel better,” Perkins said. “It gets better by the day.”

Perkins said he is in no rush to return because he believes the Celtics are good enough to win games without him right now, and he wants to be 100 percent healthy when the playoffs arrive.

His heart is telling him to play, but his head and his doctor are telling him to sit out.

“Our team is still good without me so my heart is telling me to go out there on the floor. But at the same time you have to think smart,” Perkins said.

Boston coach Doc Rivers said that Perkins’s shoulder issues could be problematic his entire career.

“It’s not a career-ending injury but it could be a career problem,” he said. “It has been so far in his young career. Last year we got away with it. … You just don’t know with it. I had that injury late [in my career]. It’s not a fun injury.”

“He knows he’s [eventually] going to play. He knows he is going to get it right but he knows it could happen again,” Rivers added. “It’s just dumb luck. The rest of this year he’s got to play through it.”

With Perkins out, the Celtics started Brian Scalabrine last night.

Rookies are in town

Boston rookies Bill Walker and J.R. Giddens were in attendance last night.

The Celtics recalled the pair from Utah of the NBDL on Jan. 8.

They certainly made their presence felt in Utah.

Walker averaged 18.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while knocking down 55.7 percent of his shots, while Giddens averaged 17.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, and connected on 53.5 percent of his shots.

Walker said he learned a lot while playing for Utah.

“I learned how to pick my spots and learned what I can use to be successful on the court,” Walker said. “It was pretty much like a trial-and-error on offense. I just focused on my 3-point shooting. I was focusing on taking good three’s to make my percentage higher. I worked on my mid-range game and I just tried to get better on defense.”

Walker said that there is a big difference in talent between the D-League and the NBA, but said that there is a lot of competition in the D-League because everyone there is trying to make a name for themselves.

“The guys up here are great but down there you’ve got guys like me that are good but not at that [NBA] level,” Walker said. “At the same time, it’s a very serious league down there. There are a lot of guys that are just starving to get a shot up here. It’s very competitive.”

Tony Allen remains sidelined

Backup guard Tony Allen missed his fifth straight game with a right ankle injury last night.

Rivers said he doesn’t expect Allen, who is wearing a walking boot for “precautionary reasons,” to return until next week.

roblee@projo.com