Deonte Burton was thrilled to finally play his first official game for NLEX, which ended in a record win on Wednesday to start the resumption of the 2026 PBA Governors’ Cup.
And Burton made sure that the Road Warriors made the right choice in tapping him as replacement for the injured DeQuan Jones, with numbers that contributed in crushing the guest team Macau Giant Pandas, 138-78.
‘It feels really good just to be out here with the guys,’ Burton said after finishing with 22 points, 14 rebounds, eight assists and six steals. ‘I was really excited to play, and I just hope you all enjoyed it.’
Burton’s statline were two assists and four steals shy of the league’s first-ever quadruple-double, per PBA chief statistician Fidel Mangonon.
He made an impact right from the get-go, and the Road Warriors would later build on that to post the most lopsided winning margin in PBA history, surpassing Rain or Shine’s 56-point rout of Blackwater last March.
The southpaw reinforcement was signed by NLEX after Jones went down with a gruesome leg injury before the season-ending conference went on a hibernation.
He arrived last month and saw action for the Road Warriors in the PBA On Tour exhibition series and succeeding tune-ups, slowly getting accustomed to his team.
‘It helped our chemistry, just being able to play against different people and be able to build chemistry, and I feel like it showed tonight,’ Burton said.