Tramel's ScissorTales: When Luguentz Dort is out, Thunder defense is in trouble

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The Thunder’s surprisingly-successful season has been helped by fortune. OKC has avoided a variety of NBA superstars.

Let’s see. Going backward. Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant, Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan, Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Dallas’ Luka Doncic, Washington’s Bradley Beal. All have missed games against the Thunder, and OKC is 7-1 in those games. The lone loss? Miami, 112-111, a game in which the Thunder gave away a five-point lead in the final 45 seconds.

And that’s just in January, a month in which the Thunder fashioned a 9-5 record.

But what goes around comes around, and players missing games has hurt the Thunder, too. He’s not a superstar, but Luguentz Dort has been indispensable to OKC.

Dort has sat out the past two Thunder games with a hamstring injury. And Dort is the Thunder’s antidote for superstars.

More:Thunder's Josh Giddey, Jalen Williams named 2023 NBA Rising Stars for All-Star weekend

Oklahoma City's Luguentz Dort (5) reacts after a 3-point basket in the second half during the NBA basketball game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, Jan.18, 2023.
Oklahoma City's Luguentz Dort (5) reacts after a 3-point basket in the second half during the NBA basketball game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, Jan.18, 2023.

So when Mitchell sits out a game, like Friday night at Paycom Center, the Thunder is relatively fine without Dort. OKC rallied for a 112-100 victory.

But Monday night at Paycom, the Thunder faced the fully-stocked Warriors, and uh-oh. Dort sorely was missed.

Dort draws the assignment on virtually every superstar except post players, from Doncic to LeBron James, and that assignment includes shooting wizard Steph Curry.

Curry led the Warriors to a 128-120 victory Monday night. He made 12 of 20 shots, including eight of 14 from 3-point range, and scored 38 points. His Splash Brother, Klay Thompson, made six of 14 from deep and scored 28 points.

Golden State is hard enough to corral with your best defenders. The Warriors virtually are impossible to corral when one of the league’s best defenders is reduced to spectator status.

Curry and Thompson combined to make 22 of 41 shots and shoot 50% from deep. It was 2016 all over again.

Thompson’s memorable Game 6 in the star-crossed 2016 Western Conference Finals was ignited when Thunder defensive whiz Andre Roberson was saddled with five fouls in the fourth quarter. By the time Billy Donovan got Roberson back on the court, Thompson was sizzling and the damage was done.

More:How Thunder is among NBA pace leaders thanks in part to Mark Daigneault's 'Minnesota' play

Curry and Thompson got the whole dang game to sizzle Monday night.

This was just the third missed game of the season for Dort. Cleveland was the second and, like I said, was offset by Mitchell’s absence.

Dort’s first missed game this season came December 7 at Memphis. Ja Morant went wild, with a 26-point triple-double.

Dort remains a hot-and-cold offensive player. He leads the Thunder in bad shots by a wide margin, though he’s improved in that area. His 3-point shooting is up to 35.7%, which is acceptable for most players and is nirvana for a defender like Dort. Dort still misses on too many drives to the basket.

Dort will be an even more valuable player when the Thunder roster improves and his volume goes down. His usage rate of 20.3 (he shoots, gets foul shots or commits a turnover on about 20% of the Thunder possessions) is down from the previous two years. So that’s a good sign.

But even if Dort were to be an offensive zero, his defense would be so valuable he’d have to be on the court.

We rarely see it, because Dort plays. But when Dort doesn’t play, the Thunder defense is in trouble.

More:OU's Taylor Robertson meets Steph Curry after breaking all-time NCAA 3-point record

Will Bengals' success continue when Joe Burrow gets contract extension?

In his postgame press conference Sunday night, Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor used the word “hard” 11 times.

Consoling game goat Joseph Ossai? The Bengals’ sluggish offense? Blocking Chiefs pass rusher Chris Jones? The late intentional-grounding penalty against quarterback Joe Burrow?

Taylor answered them all the same. “It is hard.”

That’s a summary of National Football League life. Plays are hard to win. Games are hard to win. Championships are hard to win.

And the Bengals came up short. Beaten 23-20 in the Super Bowl last January, the Bengals lost by the same score to Kansas City on Sunday night in the game to get to another Super Bowl.

Cincinnati was 4-4 entering November but won eight straight games to finish the regular season, survived a 24-17 squeaker against Baltimore to open the playoffs, then went to Buffalo and routed the Bills 27-10 in the American Conference semifinals.

This seemed a Super Bowl-level team. And it was. It’s just that Kansas City is, too.

“It aches, trust me,” said Taylor, a Norman High School graduate. “Our goal was to win the Super Bowl. To be seconds away again to get back there and watching them celebrate, it is horrible because this team has invested so much in each other to get to this point.

“We have been playing playoff football since Halloween, we just didn't know it. We had to win 10 games to be here. I am really proud of the way these guys show up.”

Now the Bengals face the same charge that Kansas City faced a couple of years ago. Cincinnati has blossomed with a young quarterback, same as KC did with Patrick Mahomes.

NFL teams with star quarterbacks on rookie contracts have a major advantage. The smaller salary for young quarterbacks leaves more money under the payroll cap for talent.

More:Tramel: Jalen Hurts surpasses Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray as new king of OU QBs in NFL

The Chiefs signed Mahomes to a 10-year, $450-million contract that kicked in this season. Mahomes actually took less money than he could have gotten; the cap hit on KC this season was $35.8 million. That goes to $46.8 million next season.

Credit KC for producing a championship roster with that kind of salary obligation for one player.

The Bengals have one season left with Burrow on his rookie contract. His 2023 cap hit figures to be $11.5 million.

But Burrow’s next contract kicks in for 2024, and the Bengals will have to pay up. Maybe Burrow makes a franchise-favorable deal, like Mahomes did in Kansas City, but it still figures to be major money.

"My plan is to be here my whole career,” Burrow told NBC Sports. “Hopefully, Zac is here my whole career, and hopefully a lot of our guys are around for as long as my career as they can be.

“Zac, in my opinion, is the best coach in the league. So that gives me a lot of confidence to go out there and say that."

Still, the best window to big-time success is with a young quarterback not hogging a big chunk of the payroll. The Eagles, with third-year quarterback Jalen Hurts, are a great example. The 49ers, too, who don’t have a quarterback under a mega-contract and made the NFC Championship Game.

Cincinnati has one of those seasons left. That’s why 2022 was another opportunity lost for Taylor.

Still, the Bengals have come far. In their first 53 years as a franchise, Cincinnati won five playoff games. Now Taylor and Burrow have led the Bengals to five playoff victories the last two winters, with two harrowing, 23-20 defeats.

“I think I appreciate it now,” Taylor said. “I have been fortunate enough to go to two Super Bowls (one as a Rams assistant coach) and now three (conference) championship games. You try to live in the moment. Last year just happened so fast for us.

“This year, it was an expectation, but you are able to appreciate every step of the way. There are four teams left, 28 at home. We do not take that for granted.”

But the clock is ticking. The clock always ticks in the NFL.

More:Bengals coach Zac Taylor is named after an underrated OU football player. 'Such a good guy'

Mailbag: Sports’ most difficult position

My readers ask the most fascinating questions.

Jeff: “List the top five most difficult positions to play in all of sport. I don’t believe it has been debated in a ranking style format and would love to hear the expert take on the topic. For the record, I believe MLB catcher would rank No. 1 in my list. What do you think, Berry?”

Tramel: Great question. I would rate NFL quarterback No. 1, and here’s why. Where are the shortages? Where is greatness most limited?

I would say NFL quarterback. The middle-of-the-pack NFL quarterback remains a far piece behind a great NFL quarterback, and a middle-of-the-pack NFL starting QB is somewhere between 10th and 20th on the list of world’s greatest quarterbacks.

The mental demands are enormous on a quarterback, from identifying defenses to making quick-trigger decisions. And while the rules now protect the QBs a lot physically, the athletic demands remain incredible, in terms of pinpoint passing.

MLB catcher is a good one, lots of physical and mental demands there.

Sort of like an NFL center, who has to do all kinds of mental gymnastics before the ball is snapped, get the ball snapped and then block a behemoth trying to take your lunch money.

I would rank NFL cornerbacks near the top. The rules are designed to protect receivers at all costs. Cornerbacks are swimming upstream.

And NBA point guards face very difficult circumstances. They have to score and distribute at huge amounts, and they have to keep teammates involved, and they have to play defense against guys who are doing the same and are athletic marvels.

I don't know enough about hockey to differentiate between the position difficulties.

More:Why is OU basketball's offense so fast? Jennie Baranczyk isn't looking for a 'chess match'

The List: Power-conference new coaches

The Kansas State-Kansas rematch comes Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, matching the Big 12’s two highest-ranked college basketball teams. K-State is No. 7 in The Associated Press poll, and Kansas is No. 8.

The K-State turnaround under new coach Jerome Tang is quite impressive. The Wildcats placed ninth in the conference last season and were picked dead last in the 2022-23 preseason poll.

Here are the 14 new coaches in one of the Power Six conferences, ranked by their positive impact:

1. Jerome Tang, Kansas State: Bruce Weber did an excellent job coaching the Wildcats for almost a decade, but K-State was 14-17 a year ago, 6-12 in the Big 12. Now the ‘Cats are 18-3, 6-2, and seemingly a Final Four contender under Tang, a longtime Baylor assistant coach.

2. Mike White, Georgia: The Bulldogs grabbed White from Florida, which was disenchanted with White, and the results have been encouraging. In Tom Crean’s final year at Georgia, the Bulldogs were 6-26. Now Georgia is 14-7 overall, 4-4 in the Southeastern Conference.

3. Dennis Gates, Missouri: Gates was hired away from Cleveland State to replace Cuonzo Martin, who went 12-21 (5-13 in the SEC) in his final season. Now the Tigers are 16-5, 4-4.

4. Sean Miller, Xavier: Travis Steele went 23-13 in his final Xavier season, including 8-11 in the Big East. Steele was fired to make way for Miller, who was tainted by NCAA scandal at Arizona but was a big winner previously at Xavier and is doing it again, going 17-5, 9-2 in the Big East.

5. Kevin Willard, Maryland: Willard was hired away from Seton Hall to replace Mark Turgeon. And the Terrapins have improved, from 15-17 (7-13 in the Big Ten) a year ago to 14-7, 5-5.

6. Jon Scheyer, Duke: Scheyer was given the thankless, yet still golden, task of succeeding Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. The Blue Devils, 32-7 (16-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference), are 15-6, 6-4 under Scheyer, a longtime Duke assistant coach.

More:How Taylen Collins blossomed into a do-it-all player for Oklahoma State women's basketball

Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang dances on the court after his team's 82-76 overtime win over West Virginia at the end of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, in Manhattan, Kan.
Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang dances on the court after his team's 82-76 overtime win over West Virginia at the end of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, in Manhattan, Kan.

7. Todd Golden, Florida: Golden, from San Francisco U., replaced White and has done a solid job. The Gators, 20-14 (9-9 in the SEC) a year ago, are 12-9, 5-3.

8. Shaheen Holloway, Seton Hall: St. Peter’s hero Holloway is 13-9 overall, 6-5 in the Big East, after Willard went 21-11 overall, 11-8 in the Big East.

9. Thad Matta, Butler: Matta coached Butler in 2000-01, then went on to a great career at Ohio State. Matta came out of retirement to replace the fired LaVall Jordan, who went 14-19 (6-14 in the Big East) last season. Butler now is 11-12 but just 3-9 in the Big East.

10. Chris Jans, Mississippi State: The Bulldogs fired Ben Howland after an 18-16 (8-10 in the SEC) season. Chris Jans, hired away from New Mexico State, has Mississippi State 13-8 overall but just 1-7 in the SEC.

11. Kyle Neptune, Villanova: The Duke Story North. Neptune replaced the legendary Jay Wright, who retired after a 30-8 (16-4 in the Big East) final season. Now ‘Nova is 10-11 overall, 4-6 in conference. Neptune was a longtime Villanova assistant who spent last season as head coach at Fordham.

12. Matt McMahon, Louisiana State: Matt McMahon, hired away from Murray State, has the Tigers 12-9, but just 1-7 in the SEC. He replaced the scandal-ridden Will Wade, who was 22-12, 9-9 in his final season.

13. Lamont Paris, South Carolina: Paris replaced the successful Frank Martin, who was fired after an 18-13 season (9-9 in the SEC). The Gamecocks are 8-13 and 1-7.

14. Kenny Payne, Louisville: The longtime Kentucky assistant coach (and a former Louisville player) spent the past two seasons as a New York Knickerbocker assistant coach. Louisville fired Chris Mack last January after NCAA scandal and two straight mediocre seasons. The Cardinals finished 13-19 last season, 6-14 in the ACC. Now they are 2-19, 0-10.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today. 

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder defense is in trouble vs Steph Curry when Lu Dort is out