OKC Thunder's Lu Dort Will 'Make Everything Tough' On Dallas Mavericks' Luka Doncic

The Western Conference Semifinals series between the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder is set to begin on Tuesday. One of the major talking points is how OKC will defend Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic.

When the Thunder's head coach Mark Daigneault was asked on Monday about their gameplan to defend Luka Doncic, an MVP finalist and the league's leading scorer this season, his response was "Just make sure Lu (Dort) is on time for the game."

It seems, at least to begin, that OKC won't be double teaming and blitzing Doncic and trust their young defender.

“[Luka Doncic is] a great player. Good ability to create shots. Makes a lot of tough shots," Dort said to media at practice on Sunday. "The ball is gonna be in his hands a lot so my main thing is to make everything tough.”

Dort is also well aware of what Doncic will try to do throughout the game, especially when it comes to drawing fouls and getting to the free-throw line. This series will feature two of the top three players in free throw attempts this season in Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

“(Doncic is) good at that. Drawing fouls and stuff like that," Dort said. "Whenever he gets to his spots, I gotta be aware of that.”

Doncic has been complimentary of Dort in the past, calling him "one of the top 3 defenders in the NBA" a few seasons ago. That didn't stop Doncic from having his way against Dort the last time these two matched up in February as the Mavericks' star had 13 points on 5/7 shooting in the 4 minutes of game time he was guarded by Dort, according to NBA.com, on his way to 32 points and a blowout victory.

The first round was a struggle for Doncic, at least for his standards, as he dealt with an illness and a knee sprain. He still averaged 29.8 PPG, 9.5 APG, and 8.8 RPG, but shot just 40.5% from the floor and 23.9% from 3 against the Clippers. It's encouraging for the Mavs that they're able to win without him being the best player in the series but they're going to need one of the best versions of him in this series if they look to advance.

OKC will have a few options to throw at Doncic if Dort isn't succeeding at first, with Jalen Williams, Gilgeous-Alexander, and even Cason Wallace, if necessary. They'll also have to deal with Kyrie Irving, who averaged more points in the second half of games in the first round (20 PPG) than anyone for the Clippers did for the entire game, except for James Harden (21.2).

Game 1 will start at 8:30 p.m. CST from Paycom Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

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