OKC Thunder OT win 3 takeaways: Dortfense rules – Free Bazley

A thrilling comeback and overtime victory has OKC Thunder fans believing this series can shift. Three takeaways offer up further insight.

After two games where Thunder Nation was left scratching their heads wondering who precisely this OKC Thunder team was on the hardwood the team, we’ve witnessed all was back.

Were they ever! This was the team that feasted all season on opposing defenses with three different guards on the floor all capable of scoring 20 points on any given night and highly capable of creating shots for others.

This was the same Thunder team that opponents knew better than to get into clutch time against because it meant taking your life in your hands.

But most importantly – THIS was the team who possesses the hidden gem of the NBA – an undrafted rookie that Sam Presti snagged on Draft Night before the rookie prospects had even finished their interviews with their drafting teams. And as it should be that youngster opens our three takeaways from the OKC Thunder overtime victory.

Three takeaways from OKC Thunder OT victory

DORTfense steals the show!

Okay so first of all – credit where credit is due—- I can’t claim ownership of the term DORTtfense, it comes courtesy of Zach Harper of Talk Hoops. But – it perfectly epitomizes what went down on the Field House court Saturday.

We kept trying to figure out how this Rockets team was handling (and that’s being polite) the OKC Thunder through two games. There were multiple five and six-minute segments of stagnant offense without a single point being scored. More importantly, the vaunted defense of the Thunder had gone AWOL.

During the eight seeding games both the Thunder and Rockets had improved but only Houston had seemingly carried it over to this series.

That started to change in Game 2, and was completely obliterated in Game 3 as the young Canadian Luguentz Dort put his stamp on the series. TI covered the specifics here, but suffice to say Lu Dort hasn’t just got Harden riled he’s given the Thunder back their mojo and confidence.

Notably, Dort’s on-court defense is 90.1 versus his off-court rating of 126.7 for a differential of minus -36.6 points! DORTfense indeed!