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Pacers’ Chris Duarte ejected after arguing with game official

Cody Taylor
·2 min read

Chris Duarte on Monday was ejected from the Indiana Pacers‘ loss on the road versus the Minnesota Timberwolves after receiving two technical fouls from a game official.

The situation began to unfold early in the fourth quarter when Duarte had the ball on offense.

Duarte was stripped by Josh Okogie but felt as though he was hit in the arm on the play. Duarte immediately began to yell at referee Eric Lewis and was hit with a technical foul.

He continued to yell at Lewis and began to slap his arm to gesture what happened on the play. Duarte was assessed with a second technical foul and subsequently ejected from the game.

Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle called the sequence unfortunate.

I just thought in that situation that what you want to see is a veteran official defuse the situation and not stare at the guy and dare him to keep talking. I thought that Chris was wrong but the officials can walk away in certain situations and I would have loved to have seen that happen right there.

He is a young player. Part of this, I think officials can help players develop by defusing that situation. It was unfortunate. I’m not pointing the finger at the referee. I’m just saying that’s what I would have liked to have seen.

Duarte had 14 points, two rebounds and two assists at the time of the ejection as the Pacers trailed by just one point. They managed to get the game tied up with just over a minute left but failed to close out the Timberwolves, losing 100-98.

Rookie players have often talked about how they may not necessarily receive the same foul calls as a veteran player would earn. They often have to adjust to the lack of calls in their favor and that was certainly the case on Monday with Duarte.

This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

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