In the first 12 minutes of tonight’s game, you may have thought two things: the Oklahoma City Thunder were going to upset the league’s best team, the Utah Jazz, and that Luguentz Dort would have the best game of his young career.
Well, one of those things came to fruition.
Luguentz Dort had a career-night tonight, scoring a career-high 42 points on 16-of-31 shooting from the floor and 7-of-11 from downtown, along with 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals. Yet, Dort and the Thunder fell short of knocking off the Jazz as Utah outlasted Oklahoma City 106-96.
[mm-video type=video id=01f2w86hp09qvs1d6042 playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f2w86hp09qvs1d6042/01f2w86hp09qvs1d6042-b178d8b1c30438cad906734d112a5a73.jpg]
From the opening tip, Dort came out firing — and hitting, scoring 18 first quarter points on 4-of-4 from 3-point land as the Thunder took a 31-22 lead over the Jazz at the end of one.
Though after the first, the Jazz took control in the second and third quarters, outscoring the Thunder a combined 66-38, helping Utah put the game away despite a hard-fought 18 fourth quarter points from Dort. Bojan Bogdanovic led the way for Utah with 23 points and 7 rebounds.
Dort joined elite Thunder company tonight, becoming only the sixth Thunder player ever to score 40 points in a game. In Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s absence and a rebuilding roster surrounding him, the Arizona State product continues to impress as a two-way player, specifically his growth on the offensive end, and is certainly outplaying the contract he signed last season.
Lu Dort drops 42 tonight. He’s the sixth Thunder player ever to score 40. The other five? Durant, Westbrook, Harden, George, SGA.
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) April 14, 2021
Moses Brown notched another double-double for the Thunder, scoring 12 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. Guard Ty Jerome was productive off the bench in 19 minutes, finishing with 14 points.
The Thunder were notably missing Aleksej Pokusevski, who was out due to right arm soreness. Poku left Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers early with the arm discomfort.
Oklahoma City will have a quick turnaround tomorrow night as the Golden State Warriors come to Chesapeake Energy Arena.
This post originally appeared on OKCThunderWire. Follow us on Facebook!