Dominican Chris Duarte played his best game in his brief NBA career and led the Indiana Pacers to surprise Stephen Curry‘s Golden State Warriors after extra time (117-121).
Duarte was the top scorer for the Pacers and had 27 points (10 of 16 shooting, 2 of 3 on 3s), 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals (without turnovers) in 39 minutes as a starter.
With those 27 points, the Dominican “rookie” equaled his best score in the NBA, which was in his debut game against the Charlotte Hornets on October 20.
But tonight was even more special than his NBA debut.
Duarte shone on the team’s court with the second best balance in the entire league (32-13); he led his team to break a splendid squad led by an outstanding player like Stephen Curry (39 points tonight), and he was successful in marking great defenders like Klay Thompson or Andre Iguodala.
The Dominican ended regulation time with 23 points and scored 4 more in overtime, including a great dunk on the counterattack after a steal, which were crucial for the Indiana victory.
As soon as the match ended, the American television TNT interviewed him on the track as the most outstanding player of the match and Duarte pointed out that “being together” and the defense were “the keys” to the victory of the Pacers.
“Believe in each other and play hard,” he summed up the recipe for his team’s amazing performance.
Duarte, who was chosen 13th in the last draft, also commented that his teammates asked him to take “a step forward” in the face of the numerous and important casualties in the Pacers. “Thank God I did that,” he said.
The Pacers are third from bottom in the Eastern Conference (17-29) and already seemed more focused on transfers and rethinking the future than fighting for something this season.
However, now they have chained two highly prestigious victories on two consecutive days, since on Wednesday they gave the bell at the home of LeBron James’s Los Angeles Lakers, who left them very touched and in total crisis (104-111).
Before these two wins, the Pacers had only won one of their last ten meetings.
The victory against the Warriors has even more merit if you take into account that Pacers figures such as Domantas Sabonis, Malcolm Brogdon, Caris LeVert and Myles Turner did not play.
In the Warriors, Stephen Curry was the most outstanding (39 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists) while the Mexican Juan Toscano-Anderson had 5 points (2 of 5 shooting), 4 rebounds, one assist and 2 steals in 15 minutes. .
Toscano-Anderson could have been the hero for the Warriors as he had a shot in the final seconds of the fourth quarter to prevent overtime, but his layup didn’t go in the end.
