April 3, 2026, 4:00 p.m. CT
Going with the side-dribble, Lu Dort created enough space away from Reaves to let it fly. Feeling himself, the 26-year-old rainbowed in another outside jumper to put the Thunder ahead by the unique score of 25-9. One of his best quarters of the season caught Los Angeles by surprise.
The Oklahoma City Thunder tarred and feathered the Los Angeles Lakers in a 139-96 win that showed there are levels to this whole contention thing. They led the entire night and by as many as 46 points.
Dort finished with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting and one assist. He shot 4-of-6 from 3. He also had two steals.
Making the Lakers pay for their late rotations, Dort scored all of his points in the first quarter. He made all four of his outside attempts in the frame as Los Angeles saw its strategy to let him shoot completely derail. Even after a couple of timeouts, nothing could stop his hot-scorch start as OKC put up 44 points.
On the other side, Dort once again had the Luka Doncic assignment. Those two have grown to know each other over the years. By now, the former has gone under countless screens to stick with the MVP candidate. Once again, the Thunder made him look human with another stinker.
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If you want to draw up the perfect game for Dort, this is it. He finally enjoyed some good outside shooting. You can tell his confidence was sky-high. And on the other end, he made Los Angeles’ NBA superstar irrelevant with some questionable shot attempts and lazy turnovers.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault talked about Dort’s big night. He added to his mythos of being a primetime riser. When the lights are at their brightest, he has some of his best moments. Knocking down outside looks, the Lakers were immediately demoralized from the jump.
“He obviously hasn’t shot the ball this year as well as he has in the past, but lately, he’s come alive a little bit. He really had the juice tonight defensively at the start of that game,” Daigneault said. “And then the New York game recently on Sunday was one of his better defensive games as well. He’s obviously a huge part of our defense and what we do. He continues to take good shots and the right shots. That’s all we’re asking to do on offense.”
The only downside to this night-long celebration was Dort’s injury. Going for a baseline dunk, he landed awkwardly on one leg. He eventually walked it off, but headed to the locker room. The third-quarter incident took away some of the zap from OKC’s mojo. We’ll see how much time he misses, but hopefully not a lot.
“We’ll check him tomorrow,” Daigneault said about Dort’s injury. “We’ll check him tomorrow.”