Chris Duarte bounces back, shows value in Kings’ loss to Lakers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
After an underwhelming Kings debut on Sunday, Chris Duarte bounced back three days later in Southern California.
The 26-year-old third-year forward, who was acquired by Sacramento this offseason, showed flashes of his two-way value in the Kings’ preseason loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.
One game after finishing with four points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field and missing all of his six 3-point attempts in Sacramento’s loss to the Toronto Raptors, Duarte finished with 10 points on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting from the field and 2 of 2 from 3-point range, adding two rebounds and one steal in nearly 16 minutes of action against Los Angeles.
Kings coach Mike Brown played with the rotation after second-year starting forward Keegan Murray was ruled out of the game. EuroLeague star Sasha Vezenkov started and played the first half with the first unit, while Duarte took over that role in the second half.
That role for Duarte included playing alongside his former Indiana Pacers teammate and good friend Domantas Sabonis — someone he said he was excited to reunite with on the court.
After the game, a 109-101 loss to the LeBron James-less Lakers, Brown shared his impressions from Duarte and Vezenkov.
“I thought they were pretty good,” he said. “I thought Chris, you could feel him defensively. He was pretty good, he was pretty active defensively. He got a couple deflections. I don’t think he allowed the ball to be blown by him at all.
“And I thought offensively, they both played very well.”
Vezenkov finished the night with seven points on a less efficient shooting performance than his NBA debut. The 28-year-old was 3 of 10 from the field and 1 of 4 from beyond the arc, adding two rebounds, one assist and one steal in 22 minutes. Although he has tons of professional basketball experience playing in the second-best league in the world, Vezenkov is expected to experience the highs and lows that any NBA rookie does.
For Duarte, it’s a small sample size, but he improved from Game 1 to Game 2. And in preseason, that’s really all you can ask for.