(Lille, France) He is nicknamed The Beast. Even better: The Dorture Chamber, a portmanteau word that combines his name and the treatment he reserves for his opponents.
Who is he ?
Luguentz Dort, a Quebec basketball player who makes his opponents shudder. Ask the Australians who rubbed shoulders with him at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Lille on Tuesday afternoon. The Montreal guard handcuffed them. Padlocked them. Dominated them. His defensive brilliance was such that the Australian head coach asked his players to stop passing the ball around the Chambre de Dorture.
“We tried to keep the game away from him,” Brian Goorjian said. To no avail. That’s a big part of why the Canadiens won 93-83. “What made the difference in this game was physical play. Specifically Dort’s physical play, who stuck to Patty for most of the game.”
Patty is Patty Mills, Australia’s captain and point guard. A veteran who played 900 games in the NBA, and won a championship with the San Antonio Spurs. A player the Australians were banking on to beat the Canadians in this crucial match of the Group of Death.
“Patty is a player who creates movement with the ball,” explained Canadian coach Jordi Fernandez. “He still looks like he’s 25 years old. His level of play is impressive. So yes, we were concerned.”
Fernandez asked Dort to follow Mills step by step. The guard followed the instructions to the letter. He pecked at his prey all afternoon. “Lou accepted his mission and executed it with all the physical intensity that we know him for. If you’re going up the ball, you don’t want to end up in front of him.”
Duel result: Mills finished the game with a differential of -16. The worst of the two teams. Sleeps? +15. The best score of the game.
The Quebecer was involved in several important actions, especially in the final minutes. Canada had a narrow 78-72 lead. Australia controlled the ball and tried to hang on. Dort, relentless, forced Mills to move on a screen. Foul. Canada took the ball back. A few seconds later, RJ Barrett (24 points) followed up with a three-point basket. 81-72. No more worries. Australia was out of the game.
When I met him after the game, Dort (11 points) was proud of his performance, as well as that of his teammates.
PHOTO MICHAEL CONROY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Luguentz Dort
“I played with a lot of intensity. That’s me. That’s my way of playing. Every time I have the opportunity to bring energy [hype] in the team, to make noise, I do it.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dylan Brooks each scored 16 points. Montreal’s Khem Birch, usually stuck to the bench, was also solid in the minutes he got in the fourth quarter. He also earned praise from his coach after the game.
“This victory feels good,” said Luguentz Dort. “We are in a difficult group. Australia were among the favourites, but we don’t worry about that.”
Canada’s group is indeed the most unpredictable of the Olympic tournament. It opposes Spain (2e in the world), Australia (5e), Canada (7e) and Greece, powered by one of the best basketball players in the world, Giannis Antetokounmpo. The latter scored 34 points earlier this week in a loss to the Canadians.
With their 2-0 record, the Canadian basketball players are leading their group. That positions them very well for the rest of the competition. “The goal,” Dort told me, “is to win the gold medal.” That’s ambitious. The Canadians are participating in their first Olympic basketball tournament since 2000. Their last medal in this discipline dates back to 1936. The creator of basketball was still alive…
“We still have other games to go and win. So we’re going to celebrate this victory, and tomorrow, we’re going to flush it and watch the next game,” Dort concluded before going to join his teammates.
Next match: against the powerful Spain, favorite if we rely on the International Federation ranking. But you know as well as I do, a basketball match is not won on a sheet of paper.
It’s won on the field, somewhere between the net and the Dorm Room.