Devilish defender
Fellow Arizona St. product Dort keeping Harden in check.
While a freshman at Arizona State two years ago, Lu Dort tried not to be too in awe of the NBA superstar who’d returned to Tempe, Ariz., to teach his fellow Sun Devils a few things about hoops.
The Rockets’ James Harden was giving back to his university late in the summer of 2018, and Dort was mightily appreciative.
“He came in, and we got some work in,” Dort recalled Sunday of what turned out to be a fateful oncourt consultation from one of the NBA’s all-time scorers. “It was a fun time, and at the same time it was still a learning process for me, just being a freshman at ASU.”
Fast forward to Dort’s rookie season with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the gung-ho guard been handed the assignment by coach Billy Donovan — both in the regular season and playoffs — of hindering Harden, the league’s leading scorer at 34.3 points per game.
The young Thunder, following a 119-107 overtime victory Saturday night in the bubble near Orlando, Fla., will try to even the series with the Rockets, who lead 2-1, at 3 p.m. Monday in Game 4 of the opening round of the postseason.
“Going into a series, you have to be really prepared to have emotional competitiveness, of being able to concentrate on the next play and not get wrapped up in a missed shot, bad call or a foul,” Donovan said. “You’ve got to have emotional toughness — and a lot physical toughness as well — because we’re playing again (Monday), and we have to do it all over again.
“Can we get better from (Game) 3 to 4? We need to keep getting better.”
It’s hard to imagine Dort playing better defense on Harden than he has in the second and third games after missing the opener with a sprained knee. Harden still finished with 38 points in the Rockets’ Game 3 overtime loss, but with Dort guarding him, he was 1-of-9 from the 3-point line and 2of-14 overall, according to NBA Advanced Stats.
Dort blocked Harden’s shot on three occasions, including the first possession of overtime, setting the tone for the Thunder’s outscoring the Rockets 15-3 in that five-minute span. Dort said Harden’s wizardry with the ball is what makes him especially hard to defend. Harden (6-5, 220) also has a slight size advantage on Dort (6-3, 215).
“Just the way he dribbles the ball, he’s so quick (that) sometimes you have to anticipate what move he’s going to do,” Dort said. “I feel like the hardest thing is just when he stays in place and starts dribbling the ball. You never know what move he’s going to do or where he’s going to go.”
Dort’s toe-to-toe defense on Harden, which is earning national recognition, is nothing new. He helped lead the Thunder to two of three victories over the Rockets in the regular season by primarily guarding Harden.
In his first NBA start on Jan. 20, Dort helped hold
Harden to 1-of-17 from the 3point line in the Thunder’s 112-107 victory in Houston. Donovan had enough confidence in his rookie to line him up against one of the NBA’s all-time shooters, and that confidence has only sprouted as Dort has rapidly seasoned.
“Great scorers make really hard shots, and they can make really hard shots on a more consistent level than most other players,” Donovan said of trying to slow Harden. “Lu has really, really good feet, he’s a physical defender, and he’s trying as hard as he can with the help of his teammates. He’s going to try and get his hands in good positioning, and he’s going to try and do the best he can to keep James in front of him. He’s also going to need help from his teammates.
“The biggest thing is Lu just gives phenomenal effort. And when you’re playing against great offensive players, you just have to try and make it as difficult as you can on them.”
The rookie has done that in Games 2 and 3, right down to fouling out Harden less than a minute into overtime Saturday following a Dort offensive rebound.
“I can’t pick up cheap fouls throughout the course of the game,” Harden said.
“(That way) I won’t be in that position late in the game. I put that on myself.”
While Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said “Dort does a great job” defending Harden, he added that his star’s misfires are way down the repair list if the Rockets are to win the opening series.
“They’re doing a great job, and James (still) had 38 points,” D’Antoni said of Game 3. “(Even) if he’s not hitting his 3s like crazy … of all the things we need to fix, he’s not one of them.”