After breaking out of his shooting slump against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday with a 30-point scoring performance, Chris Duarte caught a bad break in last night’s win over the Miami Heat, sustaining a Grade 2 ankle sprain less than five minutes into the game that is expected to keep him sidelined for at least 4-to-6 weeks, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
This is obviously a bummer considering he showed tangible progress during the offseason but then started cold and was coming off a career night. After stepping on Kyle Lowry’s foot at the 4:48 mark of the first quarter, Duarte was in obvious pain and never returned to action, as Bennedict Mathurin started the second-half in his place.