{"id":32173,"date":"2025-05-14T11:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T11:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/32173\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T11:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T11:10:11","slug":"how-big-game-lu-dort-powered-okc-thunder-rally-past-denver-nuggets-into-3-2-series-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/32173\/","title":{"rendered":"How ‘Big Game Lu’ Dort powered OKC Thunder rally past Denver Nuggets into 3-2 series lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lu Dort<\/a> snarled and stomped. He bowed his arms and bobbed his head.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d seen this version of him. The mild-mannered Montrealan had morphed into Big Game Lu<\/a>, a scary sight if you\u2019re on the opposite sideline.<\/p>\n

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Benched in the fourth quarter of Game 4<\/a>, Dort traded bricks for buckets in the biggest moments of Game 5<\/a>. His three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter catalyzed the Thunder\u2019s 112-105 win against the Nuggets<\/a> on Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

The Thunder leads the series 3-2 with a chance to close things out Thursday night in Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear as day we wouldn\u2019t have been able to win tonight if Lu doesn\u2019t make those shots,\u201d said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>, who hit a huge fourth-quarter 3-pointer of his own.<\/p>\n

SGA wasn\u2019t the only one who summarized the game so succinctly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won us the game for real,\u201d said Jalen Williams<\/a>, who hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with just over a minute left.<\/p>\n

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More: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC Thunder ‘flex the muscles’ to stun Denver Nuggets in Game 5<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort (5) celebrates after making a 3-pointer during Game 5 of the NBA playoff series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Denver Nuggets at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, May 13, 2025.<\/p>\n

The Thunder wasn\u2019t dead before Dort\u2019s barrage, but the building was tight. OKC trailed by nine points with nine minutes to play.<\/p>\n

Two minutes and three Dort triples later, Denver\u2019s lead was down to two.<\/p>\n

\u201cShout out to the crowd,\u201d Dort said. \u201cThe crowd got a lot of emotion out of me tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did it ever.<\/p>\n

Even when he was done making threes, Dort didn\u2019t stop making winning plays. He dove into the Nuggets bench to save a ball from going out of bounds. Dort\u2019s effort led to a Chet Holmgren layup that tied the game and forced another Denver timeout.<\/p>\n

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You knew Daigneault was going to go back to Dort even after benching him amid a 2-of-10 shooting night in Game 4. Daigneault is the biggest Dort defender of all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t bet against Lu,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cIt\u2019s that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daigneault was a Thunder assistant when a rookie Dort scored 30 points in a Game 7 loss to the Rockets in the bubble.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s back before Dort learned how to shoot. But even then it was evident that he had a knack for making timely, towering 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just a special thing about him,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cHe\u2019s always going to stand back up. He\u2019s not perfect, but he\u2019s always going to respond and he\u2019s always going to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Heck, maybe the stakes of Game 4 in Denver \u2014\u00a0which the Thunder won \u2014\u00a0weren\u2019t high enough for Dort. Only half-joking.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t call him Big Game Lu for nothin\u2019.<\/p>\n

Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at\u00a0jmussatto@oklahoman.com<\/a>. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a\u00a0digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More: OKC Thunder stuns Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets with wild Game 5 comeback | 5 takeaways<\/a><\/p>\n

Thunder vs. Nuggets playoff schedule<\/p>\n

All times are Central Time (CT)<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: NBA Playoffs: Lu Dort powers OKC Thunder to 3-2 series lead vs Nuggets<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lu Dort snarled and stomped. He bowed his arms and bobbed his head. We\u2019d seen this version of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,366,301,839,364,9890,6,253,302,878,310,475,179,3966,3965,211,209,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-32173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-chet-holmgren","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-dort","12":"tag-jalen-williams","13":"tag-lu","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nikola-jokic","16":"tag-nuggets","17":"tag-okc-thunder","18":"tag-oklahoma","19":"tag-oklahoma-city","20":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","21":"tag-oklahomacity","22":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","23":"tag-rockets","24":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","25":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114505883640471531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}