OKC Thunder: Luguentz Dort is the Harden whisperer

Fourth Quarter highlights two masters at work:

• Check out two masters at work. This is a pet play by Harden who initially gives the shoulder to Dort while throwing the ball to the corner knowing he’ll get it back. Again he uses the shoulder on Dort to no avail. He’s simply not used to having a defender he can’t shake with these types of moves as most defenders generally fall backward after getting that shoulder to their chest.

Yet again because he can’t shake the Thunder guard he’s forced to pass off the ball. It runs from 1:41 to 1:55 in this video.

• For an example of how the shoulder push works check out this video example at the 4:06 mark of the video. Darius Bazley is defending him and the shoulder hit causes him to fall back two steps.

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Of note, there were at least three great defensive sets by Bazley on Harden which is a great option for Donovan to use when Dort is sitting. Bazley offers the height for Harden to deal with and gives just enough of a different type of defender to keep Harden on his toes.

• Another great example of Harden trying to body Dort, or shake him but Dort is equal to the task. Despite getting right to the basket Dort blocks the shot and creates the turnover. Timestamp 5:44, the second video from the fourth quarter group or 24th on the list.

There are numerous other examples that don’t show up in one on one shot defense because Lu forced him to pass off the ball repeatedly.

And while the best scorer in the NBA still managed to score 38 points (11 of which came via his 15 attempts at the charity stripe) imagine what that tally would’ve been had it not been for Dort.

By game end, Harden shot 12 of 27 but only three of those successful attempts came against the OKC Thunder guard who held him to 3 of 14 when he guarded him man to man.

Luguentz Dort is the Harden whisperer — indeed!