If Dort is on the court, he’s all in. No matter the assignment, Luguentz Dort is part of the Light Brigade.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Luguentz Dort dove to the hardwood Sunday night for the best of reasons.

He wanted the ball.

The ball matters to Dort, because teams can’t score without it, and teams can’t win without scoring, and winning matters to Dort.

We don’t really know pro ballplayers, these Thunder heroes who have rejuvenated the city and state with springtime basketball. We have to guess, or interrogate and hope we get a straight answer.

But Dort doesn’t seem overly complicated. He seems like a ballplayer who has a blue collar to go with his blue jersey. Dort comes to work every game wearing his hard hat.

Mark Daigneault has proven to be no dodger of questions, and a truth-teller as best we can tell, and the Thunder coach this week gave one of the best descriptions I’ve ever heard for a ballplayer.

Daigneault called Dort a “pure person.”

Dort is a wondrous defensive player. One of the best in the NBA. Thick and quick; strong and long; rough and tough.

In The Athletic’s annual player poll, 132 votes strong, Dort drew the third-most support for the league’s best defensive player. His 9.8% (13 votes) trailed only Victor Wembanyama’s 15.2 and Jrue Holiday’s 12.9.

Heady company but much deserved for a defender who in Game 1 of the Thunder-Pelicans playoff series dogged the much-taller Brandon Ingram into a 5-of-17 shooting night. A defender who could and has and will switch over to the smallish, crafty C.J. McCollum, or would be guarding New Orleans freak Zion Williamson, who is straight out of Marvel Comics central casting but is sidelined by a hamstring injury that figures to keep him out of this series.

Every NBA player is a competitor. No one gets to this level otherwise. But the season is grind. Mentally and physically. As Chicago sang so long, everybody needs a little time away. But Dort does not. He sits out a few games every year, either by nagging injury or by Daigneault decree, but if Dort is on the court, he’s all in. No matter the assignment, Luguentz Dort is part of the Light Brigade.

“He’s pretty special there as a competitor,” Daigneault.

Then Daigneault peeled back the curtain and turned psychologist about Dort.

“He’s a very, like, pure person,” Daigneault said. “He’s not pretentious at all (Dort is a Montreal Canadian, how could he be?). And his competitiveness is like that, too.

“He doesn’t really discriminate. He’s ready to play every single night. He’s always in character. And he’s like that as a guy, too. I don’t think he lies. Really pure person.”

I’ve been in the business 45½ years. I’ve never heard a coach say “I don’t think he lies” about a player, especially when trying to explain why Dort plays so hard.

Makes as much sense as anything else. Think about it. You’ve seen Dort play night after night, game after game, for five NBA seasons. Can you remember one time when Dort dogged it? When Dort didn’t hustle back on defense? When Dort lazily went under a screen? When Dort got beat and decided to not chase the dribbler? When Dort quit his day job to argue with the ref?

Dort figures he’s always on the clock. From where comes that mentality? Alas, we don’t know. Dort’s introspection is not nearly as deep as Daigneault’s perspective.

“I’m just a competitor, honestly,” Dort said. “I want to do everything for my team. I want to do everything to win. Especially those crucial games like that. You gotta do everything to win at basketball. Effort just comes with that. Basically that’s my mentality. Just do whatever I have to do.”

We don’t know, but we can surmise. Dort wasn’t blueblood growing up hardscrabble in Montreal. He comes by his blue collar honest. Dort went to Arizona State, not Kentucky. Dort wasn’t a lottery pick. He wasn’t a draft pick at all. Dort signed with the Thunder as a rookie free agent, played with the OKC Blue of the G League, worked his way to the Thunder and ended up starting 28 games that first year. As a rookie, Dort played big-time defense on James Harden in a Thunder-Rockets playoff series that went seven games; Houston won, but Dort scored 30 points in a Game 7 defeat.

So it was fitting and proper that before Game 1, when Oklahoma City mayor David Holt presented the Northwest Division trophy to the Thunder, Dort had the honors of representing the franchise.

“It was great,” Dort said Monday. “You look back a couple of years ago, where we didn’t win a lot of games here. We had to be on the bench with masks on. No fans, nothing like that. It was different.

“Last night, when I was holding the trophy and looking at the crowd, seeing all the white shirts and stuff, it was a good moment.”

Hard work and a hard hat paid off. Why stop the former or remove the latter?

Game 2 is at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, and Dort’s determination will be back in action. Against Ingram or against McCollum or against whoever the Pelicans have on the court.

“He’s just a beast,” said Thunder teammate Isaiah Joe. “His ability to go out there and defend night in and night out, defense, it’s not easy. The way he does it, being able to lock down on key offensive players, it’s just amazing.

“I’ve really never seen anything like it, the way he takes on those challenges.”

Dort set the tone in Game 1. On New Orleans’ first possession, the Pelicans tried to post up the 6-foot-8 Ingram on Dort. Dort pushed out Ingram 20 feet from the basket, stoned a couple of drives and eventually prompted Ingram to take a jumper with his jersey filled by Dort. The ball missed long, by a healthy margin.

The Pelicans never found an offensive rhythm. New Orleans stayed in the game with a bunch of rebounds (24 second-chance points). But on the Pels’ first shot of a possession, they made just 28 of 79 attempts.

“I thought we were really keyed in on that end of the floor,” Daigneault said. “That won us the game. Our first-shot defense was really high level. They had to earn everything they’ve got.”

New Orleans had the 11th-best offense among the 30 NBA teams, and that’s with Zion playing 70 games. Without their bull of a ballplayer, the Pelicans are hard-pressed to score unless Ingram and McCollum both are on. Sunday night, they combined to make 14 of 36 shots.

The Thunder is a deep defensive team. Offensive stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams are quite adept defensively, too. Chet Holmgren is an elite rim protector. Rookie Cason Wallace looks like a capable Dort sidekick.

Put Jonas Valanciunas in a suit, and he could double as a Bond villain. But as big and broad and imposing as the Pelicans’ big man looks, wiry Thunder center Chet Holmgren looks increasingly scary to NBA opponents.

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— Sellout Crowd (@selloutcrowd_) April 23, 2024

But Dort himself has been the foundation of the Thunder’s defense since his rookie season. He remains so. Dort’s ability to guard everyone from Kevin Durant to Damian Lillard means Daigneault has exponentially more cards to play than he would with a normal defender.

“He unlocks a lot of stuff for you,” Daigneault said of Dort. “The menu’s much bigger because we have a guy like him. Much less reliant on scheme, much more reliant on the individual impact. And then also to that point, the ability to move him around. That can alter your scheme to a degree.

“And he’s done that for years now; this is nothing new. It’s obviously on a different stage, but he’s done that for years.”

Dort has covered all three New Orleans stars. Ingram, Zion, McCollum. Most figured Dort would be on McCollum to open the series. But no. Daigneault settled on Ingram as Dort’s assignment.

Ingram has a lethal 20-foot jumper. He rises over most defenders and gets off his shot under most circumstances. Ingram did that plenty in Game 1, but Dort was too physical to let Ingram get comfortable.

“He’s a great player,” Dort said. “He’s gonna make a lot of tough shots. It’s not an easy cover. I gotta lock in to the gameplan, I gotta watch a lot of film.

“My main thing is to be physical and to make everything tough. So I’m trying to do everything to get over the screen and just stay in front of him.”

Dort clearly considers it a source of pride to fight over every screen. He gets whistled for his share of fouls, but he also draws a bunch of fouls on screens.

And that old adage that the NBA is a make-or-miss league? Dort doesn’t buy it. He believes in making opponents miss.

“This is what I train for,” Dort said. “I’ve been doing this for my whole career. Just having different matchups. Bigger guys. Taller guys. Smaller guys. Whatever. I’m used to it, so whatever Coach wants me to do, if it’s a tall guy like Brandon Ingram, or a small guy like C.J., I’ll just do whatever I can to make it tough.”

Do whatever I can. That’s the way Dort plays basketball. That dive to the hardwood? It came off a jump ball, early third quarter, with OKC up 51-50. The ball bounced around some hands, then off Dort’s leg. He dove to retrieve it, flipped it to Gilgeous-Alexander for a fast-break layup and continued his pure and unpretentious ways.