Montreal's Lu Dort is defensive backbone of top-ranked Oklahoma City Thunder

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort controls the ball during an NBA basketball game against the Houston Rockets in Houston, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (Ashley Landis / The Associated Press)

RJ Barrett was on one of the hottest stretches of his career, making more than 60 per cent of his field goals and leading his Toronto Raptors to three wins over four games.

And then he ran into his old friend Lu Dort.

Dort and his Oklahoma City Thunder teammates shut down Barrett, and therefore the Raptors' offence, in a 129-92 rout on Thursday. Even after the loss, Barrett has the second-most transition points per game in the NBA, behind only two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks.

"We just knew that as soon as the ball was going up, we had to get some guys to run back," said Dort on stifling Barrett and Toronto's fast-paced offence. "We had it going offensively, we made a lot of shots that they couldn't really run in transition.

"But, we just used whatever they were doing. We've been working on playing faster and doing that on our end, so it worked well for us."

Barrett, a swingman from Mississauga, Ont., had averaged 28.3 points on 60.9 per cent field-goal shooting, 47.6 per cent on three-point attempts, over his past four games. Against Dort, who is from Montreal, Barrett managed 17 points on 31.3 per cent field-goal shooting and 14.3 per cent three-point attempts.

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The two Canadians have known each other since they were adolescents and Dort suggested that familiarity helped his defence.

"I've been playing against RJ since I was 14, 15 and to see where we are now is actually crazy," said Dort, who teamed with Barrett on Canada's men's basketball team at last summer's Paris Olympics. "I'm really happy for him to be back in his hometown and putting on a show. He's been having a great season.

"It's always nice to see one of my summertime teammates doing well in the season."

Dort is averaging 9.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game this year, low offensive numbers for a starting swingman, but it's not scoring that gets him on the floor.

He's averaging 1.1 steals, 0.9 blocks, and 0.6 turnovers over 22 games this season -- all career bests -- against a diverse range of defensive assignments including Barrett, Sacramento Kings point guard De'Aaron Fox, Los Angeles Lakers small forward LeBron James, and Utah Jazz power forward Lauri Markkanen.

"The range of who he can guard defensively is an underrated element of him as a defender," said Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault. "I think when you think of him as a defender, you think of him like squaring up a guy like (Los Angeles Clippers point guard) James Harden or (Dallas Mavericks point guard) Luka Doncic and chesting those guys.

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"That's impressive, and he does a great job on those types of players, but you can play him down with speed guards, where he can really impose his physicality, and then you can play him up to big wings and big fours, and we've done that as well."

Dort had three blocks and two steals in 28 minutes at Scotiabank Arena -- Daigneault rested his starters with the game well in hand -- and backup forward Cason Wallace had three steals and three blocks.

"We just scrap, just the way we play defence," said Dort. "Every time we've got a chance to get a steal or a block or anything, we'll do it.

"That's just the trust that we have with each other, the way we play defence, how we trust each other whenever we get beat, that the low man is going to be there to make contests and make a great play."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2024.