The biggest matchup of the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Dallas Mavericks Round 2 series involves an offensive hub and one of the best perimeter defenders.
A key matchup will be how Lu Dort defends Luka Doncic. Dort had a fantastic Round 1 series. He limited Brandon Ingram to 14.3 points on 34.5% shooting in four games.
Dort’s one-on-one matchup increases in difficulty by tenfold against Doncic.
Doncic is one of the best players in the league and is an MVP finalist this season. He averaged 29.8 points on 40.5% shooting, 9.5 assists and 8.8 rebounds against the LA Clippers.
The 25-year-old had a stellar pair of games against the Thunder this season. He averaged 34 points on 56% shooting, 13.5 assists and 11.5 rebounds. Doncic will average his monster numbers, but Dort can make him earn those points.
“A great player. Good ability to create shots. Makes a lot of tough shots,” Dort said about Doncic. “The ball is gonna be in his hands a lot so my main thing is to make everything tough.”
A point of emphasis for defending Doncic will be to stay disciplined and avoid falling for his foul-baiting. He averaged 8.7 free-throw attempts this season. Dort cannot allow the MVP candidate to get free points at the charity stripe.
“He’s good at that. Drawing fouls and stuff like that,” Dort said about Doncic. “Whenever he gets to his spots, I gotta be aware of that.”
The Thunder won’t be able to blanket Doncic — he’s simply too great of a player to do so. Instead, OKC will need to focus on limiting him and turning him into an inefficient high-volume scorer like he was against the Clippers.
Doncic struggled from outside against LA. He shot 23.9% from 3 on 11.2 attempts in the first round. If he puts up similar shooting numbers in Round 2, OKC has the offensive firepower to make that a costly deficiency.
