One of the less experienced NBA players on the Oklahoma City Thunder, center Moses Brown got one of his first looks at what makes Lu Dort so special on Sunday afternoon.
With just nine seconds left in the game, the Thunder held a one-point lead. John Wall drove to the rim, got passed Lu Dort and into the lane, and went up for a layup.
Dort didn’t give up. He came from behind to swat the shot, avoid the foul and help clinch what turned into a 114-112 win.
Brown, watching from the bench, was in awe.
“Honestly, that was a heroic play. I’ve never seen anything like it and it was so clutch,” he said in the postgame press conference.
“I told Lu after the game, like, ‘You’re a monster, Lu.'”
Welcome to Oklahoma City, big man.
The NBA didn’t have Lu Dort as a top 5 DPOY candidate 🤣 pic.twitter.com/0H1YW1GSG9
— Thunder Film Room (@ThunderFilmRoom) March 21, 2021
Dort finished with a team-high 23 points and had an increased role of ball handling duties with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sitting due to right shoulder soreness, but as is so often the case, the lasting image of his performance came on the defensive end.
“I can’t say enough about him defensively — it’s almost like you can ignore it at this point,” head coach Mark Daigneault said with a small chuckle. “He just goes out there and has elite defensive performances.”
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His teammates certainly didn’t ignore it, as they mobbed him during the timeout break after OKC got the rebound. Dort, for his part, tried to remind them that they can’t celebrate yet — they still had to close it out.
“It was fun to see all the guys get excited and stuff, but in my head, I was just like, ‘Chill, the game is not done yet,'” Dort recalled with a laugh.
They had enough focus to close out the final six seconds, as Aleksej Pokusevski hit a free throw and then Dort defended a deep Wall 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Oklahoma City improved its record to 18-24 while the Rockets dropped their 20th game in a row to fall to 11-30 on the season.
This post originally appeared on OKCThunderWire. Follow us on Facebook!
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