“Tonight was fantastic, man!”: Chris Duarte reveals his magnanimous emotions on playing his first ever home game for the Indiana Pacers

Indiana Pacers played the Heat in their renovated arena- They came up with a great win 

 

The Pacers delivered a heat check to Miami, beating them 102-91. A huge night for rookie Chris Duarte, where he put up 19 points and 5 rebounds on his home debut, along with Domantas Sabonis and Malcolm Brogdon registering a double-double each. The Pacers may not be everyone’s favorite, but Sabonis and co. will make the league and fans sit up and look at them.

The Miami Heat had a great season opener, where they blew out last year’s champions Milwaukee Bucks, but that momentum all came crashing down with this stop at the Pacers’ newly renovated stadium, the Gainbridge Fieldhouse Arena. The Indiana Pacers lost their first two games, but they had a good game tonight against the heat.

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Here are some of the stats that other players put up:

Chris Duarte: 19p/5r

Malcolm Brogdon : 18p/14r/4a/2b

Jeremy Lamb: 12p/2r

Domantas Sabonis is an underrated player, all teams included

Sabonis had a career year in all aspects of the game, averaging 20.3 points, 6.7 assists, and 12 rebounds. This earned him his first all-star call-up and he started this year at the same level as last. The Pacers have a very underrated team, with Sabonis, Myles Turner, Malcolm Brogdon, and Jeremy Lamb. They finished 9th in their conference last season and played in the first-ever in-season fight for the 8th place playoff spot. They didn’t qualify past that, but they were good.

With TJ Warren set to come back sometime this season, there is a good chance that this team only gets better. We should hope that this isn’t a one-off, and they fall off so much that they don’t make the playoffs.

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The east is probably at its most competitive season yet, and the league is all up for healthy competition. This also means good teams don’t make it to the playoffs, but that is a tradeoff required to make the league more competitive.