The NBA regular season is in the rearview, the playoff bracket is set, and for the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, the journey back to the mountaintop really begins.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will understandably command much of the spotlight. The reigning NBA MVP – who is the frontrunner for the award yet again – is having a 31.1 ppg season, his fourth straight year averaging over 30 a game.

But as the old adage goes: Offense wins games, defense wins championships.

And that’s where Lu Dort steps in.

The 6-foot-4 guard – who was selected to the NBA All-Defensive First Team last season and placed fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting – was a key cog in the OKC team that lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy as their primary defensive stopper.

This season, the Thunder – who clinched the No. 1 seed in a tough Western Conference for the third straight season with a league-leading 64–18 record – unsurprisingly also had the No. 1-ranked defense yet again, with a rating of 106.5.

And despite having a plethora of options to utilize on the defensive end alongside Dort, including 7-foot-1 Chet Holmgren and the ever-improving Cason Wallace, head coach Mark Daigneault still placed the toughest assignments on the recently turned 27-year-old’s broad shoulders.