Montreal’s Lu Dort is defensive backbone of top-ranked Oklahoma City Thunder [Video]

RJ Barrett was on one of the hottest stretches of his career, making more than 60 per cent of his field goals and leading his Toronto Raptors to three wins over four games.

And then he ran into his old friend Lu Dort.

Dort and his Oklahoma City Thunder teammates shut down Barrett, and therefore the Raptors’ offence, in a 129-92 rout on Thursday. Even after the loss, Barrett has the second-most transition points per game in the NBA, behind only two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks.

“We just knew that as soon as the ball was going up, we had to get some guys to run back,” said Dort on stifling Barrett and Toronto’s fast-paced offence. “We had it going offensively, we made a lot of shots that they couldn’t really run in transition.

“But, we just used whatever they were doing. We’ve been working on …