Lu Dort reps ASU with 30-point Game 7 performance in wild OKC loss
Sep 2, 2020, 9:19 PM | Updated: 9:34 pm
Oklahoma City Thunder's Luguentz Dort holds the ball after an officials call during the first half of an NBA first-round playoff basketball game against the Houston Rockets in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Game 7 in an NBA playoff series is always going to be weird, and Wednesday’s between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets was proof of that through former Arizona State guard Luguentz Dort.
Dort had become one of the main stories of the series for 1) playing well as an undrafted rookie, 2) his strong defensive performance on James Harden and 3) his three-point shooting becoming a point of emphasis for Houston in them essentially letting him shoot.
That got to the point where the Thunder tried to take advantage of that by setting Dort up for threes, and the poor shooter in Game 5 missed all nine of his three-point attempts. Through five games after missing Game 1, Dort was shooting 18.4% from deep.
So, naturally, he made six of his 12 attempts in Game 7 and scored a game-high 30 points.
30 BALL FOR DORT AND THE GAME IS TIED. pic.twitter.com/OaXksi2L38
— ESPN (@espn) September 3, 2020
Dort’s night was a record-breaking one, which is hard to fathom considering the lack of a past precedent for him as a scorer.
Lu Dort has 30 points.
The most points in a Game 7 by a player 21 and younger, surpassing LeBron James' previous record of 27 points in 2006 Eastern Conference Semifinals. pic.twitter.com/sQ5GUyUeMm
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 3, 2020
Dort had scored in double figures only nine times in his rookie year entering Wednesday, and he only broke 30 points as a Sun Devil once.
The absurdity of his performance and having a fun last name made him the top trending subject on Twitter.
I….. am……. DORT
— Pablo S. Torre (@PabloTorre) September 3, 2020
i keep trying to come up w something better than dort hive and all i have is dort consort
— Haley O'Shaughnessy (@HaleyOSomething) September 3, 2020
Tim Dorton’s
— Charlotte Wilder (@TheWilderThings) September 3, 2020
God I love dorts. I mean sports.
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) September 3, 2020
And in the biggest play of the game, there was ASU-on-ASU hijinks in Harden blocking Dort’s shot.
Harden with the clutch block on Dort!pic.twitter.com/RsUxwAPZH4
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) September 3, 2020
That left time for one last pun.
came up just Dort
— Mike Golic Jr (@mikegolicjr) September 3, 2020
Perfect.
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