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Damjan Rudez has struggled to adapt to the NBA game in his first year with the Indiana Pacers. He has skated on the fringe of the rotation and shown little consistency while posting a team-worst player efficiency rating of 7.5.
Really, he was a non-factor through his team’s first 45 games of the year.
Then came an eruption: 16 points in the fourth quarter on Sunday against the Orlando Magic in a win that helped Indiana snap a seven-game losing streak.
With 8 minutes left in the game, the Pacers trailed by 9. Rudez had been mostly anonymous. He had been better than expected defensively, going up against Aaron Gordon and Tobias Harris, but he had played poorly on the other end, turning the ball over and missing several open jumpers.
No one could have expected the fireworks to come.
Rudez finished the game on a tear, scoring or assisting on the next 14 Pacers points. He hit all four of his 3-point attempts, dropped in a beautiful left-handed floater, and even exploded to the basket for a left-handed baseline dunk.
“As a shooter, you just sometimes need that one shot to get you going and your whole momentum changes.” – Damjan Rudez
After the game, Damjan Rudez talked about finally showing what he can do in the league.
“I’ve had a few of those in my career, but obviously here in the NBA it’s a different story, especially with me being a rookie,” said Rudez. “I have to be patient and wait my turn, and I’m playing on a team loaded with real quality guys. I’m not going to always be the first option on offense. Sometimes, it’s going to be two shots a game, sometimes it’s going to be six or seven. But I just have to be patient and be ready for the opportunity to come up and help my team.”
Damjan Rudez: Never Lacking Confidence
The fourth-quarter outburst was easily the highlight of his NBA career so far, but perhaps the real turning point for Damjan Rudez came the day before.
Pacers coach Frank Vogel had tried to make basketball fun again for his players during Saturday morning practice by staging a team-wide one-on-one tournament. Chris Copeland improbably won the contest, but Rudez did well, reaching the semi-finals and finding his stroke in the process.
Vogel must have seen something during the one-on-one competition.
Because the next day, after Rudez missed two wide-open jumpers to start the fourth quarter, the coach called a time out and drew up a play for the Croatian shooter. Even though he turned the ball over on that possession, Vogel’s confidence must have poured over to his player.
Thirty seconds later, Rudez hit his first 3-pointer and everything went his way for the rest of the night.
After the game, Rudez stayed humble and said all the right things. He argued that the Pacers were a much better team than their record indicated and agreed with George Hill that the win would be big going forward for the team. His postgame confidence in his — and the team’s — ability was palpable.
From the outside, it is hard to know where that confidence comes from. Rudez had only connected on 5 of his previous 22 attempts coming into Sunday’s game, and he was probably only in fourth-quarter rotation because of an injury to C.J. Miles.
“I have to be patient and wait my turn … Sometimes, it’s going to be two shots a game, sometimes it’s going to be six or seven. But I just have to be patient and be ready.” – Rudez
Yes, most NBA players are among the most confident humans on earth, but it would be hard for anyone to shake off a slump like that. Yet, there he was in the fourth quarter, confidently knocking down jump shots and intelligently posting up smaller defenders in order to kick out to open players on the perimeter.
“The shots I missed in the fourth quarter, they really felt and looked good,” said Rudez. “I’m guessing that even coach realized that and kept me out on the floor … I was doing good things and I took that as a sign that I had to keep shooting the ball. If I’m out there, everybody has trust in me, and the ball kept coming to me. As a shooter, you just sometimes need that one shot to get you going and your whole momentum changes.”