During the second half of Game 7 in the 2020 first-round playoff series between the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder, NBA analysts Mark Jackson and Mark Jones were astonished by what they saw. The league`s leading scorer, James Harden, was clearly struggling against Lu Dort, a relatively unknown Thunder rookie at the time. Wherever Harden went, Dort was right there, shadowing him relentlessly.
With just under three minutes left in the third quarter, Rockets coach Mike D`Antoni designed a play specifically to give Harden some space. The strategy involved setting three consecutive screens to free the All-Star guard from the physical, persistent rookie who had been hounding him all series.
First, Danuel House screened for Harden as he moved across the court near the elbow. Immediately after, P.J. Tucker set a screen behind House, followed by Jeff Green. The idea was that this sequence would create enough separation for Harden to drive to the basket for a layup or pass to a rolling teammate.
However, Dort fought through all three screens. Harden, visibly frustrated, watched as each potential opening vanished, ultimately settling for another long 3-pointer that bounced off the front of the rim.
“They set three screens for him,” Jackson remarked, expressing sympathy for Harden`s predicament. “But Dort was able to power through all three and get right back in the play.”
It was during this game, and specifically that defensive stand, that Dort began to fully grasp the significant impact he could have on the game.
“That was my rookie year, so I hadn`t fully realized how effective a defender I truly was,” Dort explained. “So when they were using three screens against me, I thought, `Wow, they`re trying this hard just to get me off him?`”
Indeed, they were. By the end of the game, a fatigued Harden had shot poorly, making only 4 of 15 attempts overall and just 1 of 9 from beyond the arc, finishing with 17 points, half his season average.
“I can sense when someone is becoming uncomfortable,” Dort noted. “They start asking for screens, wanting the screener to take me out. That`s the point where I realize, `Okay, I`ve got him. He doesn`t like this.`”
Dort didn`t exchange words with Harden during or after the game. He rarely talks trash unless provoked.
“There`s no need for me to say anything,” Dort stated. “Because I already know you`re going through hell right now.”
That state of defensive torment would soon become famously known as “The Dorture Chamber,” a place where Dort has been effectively trapping the NBA`s biggest stars ever since.
When asked what he hopes people understand about him, Dort`s response is straightforward and immediate.
“That I`m not a villain,” he said.
During this time of year, the label gets applied frequently.
“I`m always matched up against the best players, so my goal is to make their job extremely difficult,” Dort said. “But outside of that, I`m a calm, easygoing person.”
Unlike some defensive specialists who embrace a villainous persona, Dort doesn`t seek such titles. He says he genuinely feels bad if his defense leads to a favorite player having a poor game or even getting injured, as Ja Morant did in a series against the Grizzlies.
“He`ll come into the locker room after a game, after something happens, and tell us, `Obviously I didn`t mean to hurt him,` ” Thunder teammate Aaron Wiggins recounted.
But for Dort, basketball is inherently competitive; each matchup is a zero-sum contest. He either succeeds or fails in his assignment.
“He`s like a relentless gnat, constantly bothering you,” Wiggins described. “You can`t get rid of it unless you truly eliminate it. But you can`t eliminate him. No. He`s going to keep pursuing you.”
His primary responsibility is to shut down the opposing team`s best player. If he doesn`t perform this task effectively, he fears losing his place in the league.
This concern might seem exaggerated for a player who signed a five-year, $87.5 million contract in 2022 and finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting this season. However, Dort has witnessed firsthand how quickly his basketball future can become uncertain and is determined not to return to that precarious position.
Wiggins understands this perspective. They played against each other in high school; Wiggins in North Carolina, Dort at one of the three different prep schools in Florida he attended after leaving his home in Montreal at age 16.
At that time, many top Canadian prospects moved to prep schools in the United States to gain more visibility and face tougher competition.
Dort`s teammate and newly crowned MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, also left Toronto at 17 to play high school basketball in the U.S.
“When I left Montreal at 16, I could barely speak English,” Dort shared. “I had to go to Jacksonville. It was a complete culture shock. But it really helped build me as a person.”
He was far from home and everything familiar, having grown up as the son of Haitian immigrants in Montreal Nord.
“It`s a tough neighborhood, a challenging place to be raised,” said Nelson Osse, Dort`s first basketball coach who mentored him through AAU and high school. “Many of Lu`s friends ended up involved in gangs and similar issues.”
As he developed, Dort`s reputation grew significantly—he was rated a five-star recruit as a junior—allowing him to return to Canada for his senior year.
For college, he chose to play for Bobby Hurley at Arizona State. Hurley immediately recognized Dort`s NBA potential.
“His single season with me was the first and only time I`ve swept Arizona,” Hurley told ESPN. “When I arrived in Tucson with him, and he stepped off the bus, I felt like we had a genuine chance to compete with the caliber of athletes Arizona typically recruits.”
“Knowing the physicality he possessed, his athleticism, and how hard he played gave me a different level of confidence as a coach. I knew we would have a chance to win.”
At that point, the main criticism of Dort`s game was his inconsistent shooting. Despite this, he averaged 16 points per game as a freshman and was projected by most draft analysts as a late-first or early-second-round selection.
Hurley praised Dort extensively to anyone who inquired about his work ethic and character. He shared a story about how well Dort handled being benched after a poor performance against Colorado in the Sun Devils` Pac-12 home opener.
“For a five-star prospect to simply, when I put him back in the game, play with the same intensity as he did every other game and never show discouragement, it was truly impressive,” Hurley said. “Many young players would dwell on something like that, but Lu never seemed bothered or focused on it.”
So, when the time came to support Dort`s decision to enter the NBA draft after just one season, Hurley didn`t hesitate.
He even traveled to New York City with Dort and his family. However, instead of celebrating, they endured an unexpected, agonizing wait, sitting in the draft`s green room inside Barclays Center for hours.
Thirty players were selected in the first round. ESPN`s draft board listed Dort among the best available players for a long time. The second round began around 9:30 p.m. and proceeded quickly.
There were just three minutes between picks. Five names were called. Still no Dort. Another five. Nothing. Five more.
Dort and his family continued their difficult wait, the room slowly emptying around them.
His name was never called.
To this day, the exact reasons for Dort`s significant draft slide remain unclear.
One former general manager suggested that Dort had a poor individual workout witnessed by several teams, raising concerns about his shooting and ball handling.
Another executive speculated that teams were undecided on whether he projected as primarily a 3-and-D player or a scoring guard.
Dort realized something had gone terribly wrong. Teams began contacting his representatives to inquire if he would consider playing overseas for a few years. Others offered non-guaranteed two-way contracts.
One of those teams was the Thunder. By chance, Arizona State had played in the Tulsa Regional of the NCAA tournament that year, and OKC`s executive vice president and general manager, Sam Presti, had been impressed by Dort`s physicality and determination.
Dort left Barclays Center during the second round of the NBA draft.
A few hours later, he agreed to a two-way contract with the Thunder.
“We all cried. Not just him, I cried. His mom cried. We all prayed for him,” Osse shared. “The expectations were so high. What we anticipated being a celebration felt like a funeral. But once Lu got that call from the Thunder, offering him a two-way deal, there was no time left for crying.”
“His mindset was clear: he was going to prove to the league that they had made a mistake. He wasn`t cursing anyone or blaming anyone. It was simply, `You know what? They messed up, and now I`m going to show them why.`”
Dort barely slept that night. He felt the sooner he could leave New York and get to the place that actually wanted him, the better.
So, he boarded a flight to Oklahoma City the next morning and went directly to the practice facility.
Presti was there to meet him with a card and a powerful message.
“This is not the conclusion of your journey,” Presti told him. “It`s merely the beginning.”
Presti then laid out a detailed developmental plan and assured Dort that if he committed to it, the Thunder believed he could become a successful NBA player.
“I had so many mixed emotions when I arrived here,” Dort said. “I was sad, I was angry. But I was also overwhelmed with gratitude that they gave me this chance.”
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault was part of the Oklahoma City Blue (the Thunder`s G League team) staff that season and happened to be in the gym to put Dort through his initial official workout that afternoon.
Later that evening, Dort used a ride-sharing service to get to the temporary housing provided for G League players. He didn`t own a car or have many comforts during that first summer.
Eventually, he convinced his friend, Greg Gilman, who had been the student manager at Arizona State, to move to OKC to help him train.
Dort would scroll through Instagram, seeing images and videos of his friends enjoying themselves back in Tempe or rivals from his draft class enjoying their new wealth. When this became too disheartening, particularly late at night, he and Gilman would return to the gym.
“It`s Oklahoma City in the summer,” Dort recalled. “It`s hot. There are bugs. It smelled like dog food.” (There`s a dog food processing plant near the OKC Blue training facility).
But Dort had a clear path mapped out to reach the NBA, and he was determined to follow it, no matter the discomfort.
“It was a different experience for both of us,” Gilman acknowledged. “I`m from Phoenix, he`s from Montreal. And here we were in the middle of Oklahoma. Oh my God. But it had a certain peace to it, and there wasn`t as much going on. So, there was this sense that nothing could stop you from shaping your own future. The distractions weren`t present. You could really make this opportunity whatever you wanted it to be.”
During the initial part of the 2019-20 season, Dort proved to be everything Presti and the Thunder had hoped for.
His defensive prowess was undeniable. When the two players ahead of him in the depth chart, Hamadou Diallo and Terrance Ferguson, suffered injuries, Dort was called upon.
In early December, OKC was set to embark on a road trip visiting Portland, Utah, Sacramento, and Denver. This meant crucial matchups against stars like Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Buddy Hield, and Jamal Murray. It presented a perfect test for the rookie.
Lillard shot 8-for-24, Mitchell went 10-25, Hield 9-24, and Murray finished 6-for-15—all figures reflecting their struggles when guarded by Dort at various points in those games.
By the time the Thunder made a surprisingly strong playoff run as the NBA season resumed in the Orlando bubble after the COVID-19 hiatus, Dort had solidified his place in the team`s rotation.
This led to him being assigned to guard the then-eight-time All-Star James Harden in Game 7, making his life so difficult that coach D`Antoni felt compelled to call for three screens just to momentarily get Dort off him.
“He`s almost like artificial intelligence because once he learns something,” Gilman observed, “it builds upon itself, and he learns it incredibly fast.”
In last season`s playoffs, during the first-round series against the New Orleans Pelicans, Wiggins noticed that Dort had picked up on a specific “tell” from Brandon Ingram, a subtle cue Ingram used before executing one of his signature moves.
Every time Ingram crossed the ball through his legs, seemingly preparing to drive, Dort recognized the signal almost instantly.
“He`ll anticipate and cut off a specific move that he identifies,” Wiggins explained. “So then [Ingram] has to find an entirely different way to attack.”
Ingram shot just 35% from the field in the series and averaged only 14 points, as Oklahoma City swept New Orleans.
That same relentless effort has also translated to his offensive game.
Dort isn`t naturally a gifted shooter, but he has developed enough consistency to keep defenses honest. After shooting 29.7% from 3-point range in his rookie season, he improved to over 41% this season on more than five attempts per game.
“I watched a lot of film to see how teams were defending me,” Dort said. “And I realized that if I played [offense] with the same intensity I bring to defense, and if I could consistently make some important 3-pointers for my teammates, our team would become exceptionally difficult to stop.”
And few things energize the Oklahoma City crowd quite like a rapid sequence of Dort`s high-arcing 3-pointers swishing through the net.
This offensive development was key in how the Thunder won Game 5 of their second-round series earlier this month. Dort had shot only 1-for-4 from three in the first three quarters, but then, within a span of just over two minutes of game time, he connected on three consecutive attempts.
“That just speaks volumes about his dedication and character, stepping into those shots with such confidence,” Gilgeous-Alexander commented. “Obviously, they were defending us in a particular way, and those shots were open, but they weren`t falling early. So, his bravery to shoot them and the confidence to take them were critical, but it`s completely typical of who Lu is.”
However, Dort`s defensive tenacity remains his defining characteristic.
Just recently, he earned his first All-Defensive Team selection, a recognition of his performance ranking among the NBA`s elite in various defensive metrics, including being in the top 10 in defensive matchups against 2025 All-Stars this season, according to GeniusIQ tracking.
For six years now, he has been assigned to hound the opponents` most dangerous players—whether they are guards like Harden or power forwards such as Minnesota`s Julius Randle.
Randle had a strong first half in Game 1 of these Western Conference finals, scoring 20 points on eight shots. But then, the “Dorture” commenced.
It was almost difficult to watch Dort physically challenge Randle on four straight possessions with just over seven minutes remaining, culminating in Dort subtly pulling the chair on him as the 250-pound forward attempted to post him up.
Randle tumbled to the floor untouched. Dort stole the loose ball and quickly passed it to Alex Caruso, igniting a Thunder fast break. Randle could only look on as Gilgeous-Alexander surged past Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards for a layup that extended the lead to 13 points.
OKC ultimately won the game by 26 points.
“He`s always matched up against everyone else`s favorite player,” Gilman said. “The other team`s `hero.` So, what`s the natural contrast to that? He`s the villain. He`s `Lu the Beast.` `The Dorture Chamber.` But if you know him personally, you understand it`s like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation.”
“He`s a grizzly bear on the court and a teddy bear off the court.”
