During the 24 minutes that Luguentz Dort spent on the floor Thursday night, his teammates seemed to constantly try to pass the ball to him, notably his good friend Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
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“It wasn’t just Shai, but all four guys on the court,” said Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault. We take care of each other. It wasn’t part of the game plan. It was really cool to see that. It shows the direction this team is going.”
Dort took the first shot of the game, but failed to make the basket. But he quickly recovered to score the first three points, en route to 24 points, the best performance of the evening.
“My teammates told me at the start that they were going to give me the ball,” the Quebecer told the numerous media present at the Bell Center. I think I took the first five shots of the game! I told them I only wanted the first pitch! Afterwards, it mattered less. It illustrates all the chemistry that resides within us.
Disappointed for the supporters
Despite Dort’s good efforts, the Thunder lost 128 to 125, while the Detroit Pistons took the lead in the final moments, for a rare time during the game.
“I would have liked us to win for the crowd, it would have been nice for the supporters,” said the local hero, specifying that he will never forget this evening, during which he “heard French spoken in the crowd” like never before.
“I was ready”
A widely applauded starter, Dort was removed from the game midway through the third quarter. By his own admission, it was not the desire that lacked to jump into action to help his team resist the rise of the Pistons.
“I was ready, I watched the coach all the time. I was like: “coach, if you need me, I’m here!” But Coach Mark told us that we were going to stop in the third quarter,” Dort resigned.
“Fulfill your role wonderfully”
Daigneault knows his number 5 well. Both arrived with the Oklahoma City club five years ago. The instructor wanted to evaluate other players in the middle of training camp. However, he has already noticed that Dort has done his homework this summer.
“The most important thing is to develop a style of play that is more efficient, especially in decision-making. All the credit goes to him, because I think he managed to fulfill his role wonderfully at the World Cup. It was with this mentality of doing everything to win that he showed up at our camp. He has always been competitive, but he manages that better, and if he can continue in this vein during the season, he will greatly help the team,” said Daigneault.