Fighting through screens all night, Lu Dort might as well have been glued to Luka Doncic.
The biggest matchup of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s second-round series against the Dallas Mavericks involves Doncic and Dort. It’s a one-on-one war between an MVP finalist and one of the best perimeter defenders.
Through one game, Dort won a battle. In the Thunder’s Game 1 blowout win, Doncic had his worst playoff game. He was limited to 19 points on 6-of-19 shooting and went 1-of-8 from 3.
The 25-year-old superstar struggled to create space from Dort. Several screen attempts proved wasteful for Dallas. While Doncic is simply too good to be held to under 20 points all series, Dort did exactly what the Thunder hoped by making Doncic earn his buckets with 19 points on 19 shots.
Doncic’s co-star Kyrie Irving, who had a quiet 20 points, went into detail about Dort’s rise to one of the more prominent on-ball defenders in the league.
“Lu’s been a great defender since he walked into this league; he’s got to be given his credit and respect,” Irving said. “I think he causes a lot of issues when he’s pressuring the ballhandler 94 feet for practically the whole game.
“That’s something that we have to be aware of, but he’s not the only good defender out there. I don’t think what makes him great is just him individually. I think it’s the team game that they play, and he does a great job of being the head of that.
“But for me and my teammates, we just have to continue to attack him and continue to play downhill in a way where we play off of two feet. … This Game 1 is done, we didn’t play as well as we would have liked. We failed on a lot of our coverages, and we didn’t come in with the attitude that was necessary to get this W. …
“I had too many turnovers tonight, especially in that first quarter, just trying to get my guy settled. So there are some things to look back on, but the defensive pressure is not going to stop. So we just got to adjust.”
Through five games, OKC’s defense has been stellar in the postseason. It has yet to allow 100 points by an opponent. This will be a challenge Doncic will have to overcome if the Mavericks hope to advance past this round.
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