Lu Dort is the most pleasant and unexpected Canadian NBA story in a long while — Doug Smith: Raptors (@SmithRaps) August 23, 2020 Even with five fouls, Dort continued to stay aggressive on Harden and managed to avoid fouling out. “Keep playing. In this series, he’s 5-of-32.Until he becomes an acceptable outside shooter, Dort is a defensive specialist who will get exposed in a playoff series.Houston played its cards Saturday night. Made just seven of 46 3-point shots. “I put that on myself,” he said.Crazy thing is the disparity between Dort and every other Thunder defender. At 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, Dort has the ideal body type to move laterally with Harden on defense while also having enough strength not to be overpowered. Oklahoma City Thunder rookie Luguentz Dort has helped the Thunder even their first-round series with the Houston Rockets at 2-2 with his defense on James Harden. We've got to find the open man, and then the open man's got to make good decisions.”Lu Dort is the open man. The tonic to win Game 6? In fact, entering the contest, Dort held Harden to just 18 points on 3-of-21 shooting from the field while the rest of his teammates allowed Harden to score 78 points on 26-of-44 shooting in the three previous games of the series.Dort logged 10 minutes in the fourth quarter, while maintaining his defensive assignment on Harden, and helped the Thunder to a 117-114 win to even the series at two games apiece.
Tramel: Fate of Thunder offense rests with Lu Dort AUG 30, 2020 - Dort has been key to the Thunder defense, but now he must make shots to keep the OKC season alive The Rockets averaged 107.5 points in regulation in Game 2 and Game 3, down more than 15 from their Game 1 total.Houston was one of the NBA’s top offenses all year “Lu’s effort on James and Eric was really, really great,” Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan said after Game 3. Committed 18 turnovers. It's how they're guarding us. Once he was promoted to Oklahoma City, it … The game is predicated on space. Lu is unbelievable on how he accepts the challenge. Luguentz Dort (born April 19, 1999) is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has to listen to me yelling at him all game about what to do here and what to do there.
With a 61-point performance in the bubble, Lillard became just second player in NBA history to score 60 points three times in one season. Harden has been inefficient shooting the ball with Dort guarding him, and the Rockets have had to change their offensive scheme to free Harden of Dort. The Oklahoma City Thunder are getting some much-needed help on defense against the Rockets, especially versus star guard James Harden. The weight of the Thunder defense has been on his broad shoulders in this series. Berry Tramel, a lifelong Oklahoman, sports fan and newspaper reader, joined The Oklahoman in 1991 and has served as beat writer, assistant sports editor, sports editor and columnist. “He put his all into it.”… the Rockets have a 91 offensive rating when Lu Dort is on the floor for OKC in this series. But the Rockets weren’t able to punish them, since outside of Harden (who was blanketed by Dort), there isn’t anyone who has consistently been able to break down OKC’s defense off the dribble.That could change if the Rockets regain the services of a healthy Even if they do that, the good news: Look at how successful EG has been at attacking the paint. When he had five fouls, I just kept telling him, ‘You can’t get a sixth! With five fouls late in Game 3, Harden was understandably reluctant to attack the basket in the closing minutes and risk an offensive foul against Dort.“I can’t pick up cheap fouls throughout the course of the game, and then I wouldn’t be in that position later in the game,” Harden said postgame of his foul trouble, which limited him on both offense and defense.Harden fouled out early in overtime. In the fourth quarter of Game Three, a highlight circulated Twitter that showed everyone else just how Dort managed to not just stay in front of Harden, but not foul him, which is something that everybody else in the league struggles with.