Duarte finished with 18 points (5-8 FG, 1-2 3Pt, 7-8 FT), two steals, one rebound and one assist in 17 minutes in Friday's 134-111 loss to the Nuggets.
Duarte came through with his second big scoring game off the bench in less than a week, but his downward-trending playing time makes it difficult to trust him to turn in these kinds of performances moving forward. The eight trips to the free-throw line he made Friday likely aren't replicable for a lower-usage player like Duarte, who is averaging just 1.7 free-throw attempts per game for the season. And when Duarte isn't scoring, he isn't bringing much to the table on the defensive end; prior to Friday, he hadn't recorded a steal in his last 12 games, and he's averaging only 2.1 rebounds and 0.2 blocks per game in January.
