The Thunder are down, but they’re not out. It was the attitude that the team brought into their Game 3 showdown against the Rockets on Saturday and it will carry over into Game 4 on Monday.
As Billy Donovan’s team prepares, it’ll have an opportunity to knot the series at two games apiece, despite things looking dire down the stretch on Saturday night.
It’s impossible to credit the club for pulling out the gutsy win without crediting rookie Lu Dort, who — in his second game back after missing Game 1 — again played stellar defense on James Harden. Harden, who fouled out in the opening minute of overtime, shot just 12-for-27 in the contest, including just 3-for-13 from three-point range.
Dort’s — the primary defender on Harden for the majority of the night — had a lot to do with that. Everyone on Twitter noticed, and the rookie had a simple explanation for what kept his team fighting even as it faced a five-point deficit in the game’s final possessions.
“Just keeping playing hard, and you know, collective effort,” Dort said to reporters when asked how the Thunder emerged from Game 3 victorious.
“It was all of us, we wanted to get all the stops we could and I feel like we did a good job.”
Heading into Game 3, there were some who probably began to write the team’s obituary, especially since the Rockets managed to win both Game 1 and Game 2 without Russell Westbrook, but the Thunder had different ideas. Following the loss in Game 2, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was quoted as saying he believed that the Thunder figured something out.
Perhaps there was something to that.
“We’re here to compete and we won’t give up,” Dort said after Game 3.
“I feel like with Chris [Paul] being our leader and always pushing us to always play hard… I feel like we’ve done a great job and he’s really pushed us to play hard and not stop.”
Now, it’s on to Game 4, where a tied series could be on the horizon.