When Iman Shumpert entered the dancing reality contest with his 6’5″ stature, he set a high standard. Working alongside Daniella Karagach, the pair’s victory meant the first time an NBA player won the DWTS. It was season 30, and now in the 33rd season, Karagach is partnering up with Dwight Howard and currently has five more opponents to beat. This week was based on Halloween, where DH12 and his partner achieved a milestone. Karagach shared a memory of Shumpert in between the celebrations on social media.

“Guy just always commits. ” She hit both her hands on the table and she turned around. As soon as she turned, Iman Shumpert in a ghost mask caught her off guard, and thus Daniella Karagach shrieked. “Are you crazy? Oh my god, Iman!” A fan page of the Emmy-nominated dancer pro shared the post. Karagach added it to her story, “😂😂😂,” and Shumpert reshared it, remembering their fun time during the trophy-winning campaign.

Speaking about the Mirrorball Trophy, during the ‘Halloween Nightmares’, Dwight Howard and Daniella Karagach melted away one of their hardest critics with their performance. Carrie Ann gave the pair their first 10 of the season and was happy with the commitment the 3x DPOY showed. As previously for the ‘Soul Train Night’ special episode, she called the performance “hard to watch.” At the time, there were boos from the crowd but the judge continued, “I know you can do better than that, and you’re trying to trick us with all the expressions.”

However, for this episode, Dwight Howard and Daniella Karagach scored 28/30, with the other two judges scoring 9 each. Derek Hough gave a standing ovation and said, “downright creepy in the best possible way.” Bruno Tonioli also admired DH12 for being focused and determined throughout the act, which he hadn’t seen before.

Despite winning with Iman Shumpert, Daniella Karagach explained her issues with Dwight Howard’s pairing

Being 5 foot 3, and dancing alongside 6 foot 10, was going to be challenging. “Iman (Shumpert) was probably the tallest guy I’ve ever danced with but he’s the tallest guy I think I spent so much time with and then when I saw Dwight, I was like ‘Oh my God, he’s so much taller!’ and it was just a shock. I think like, my jaw literally fell to the floor.”

Karagach is not going down without a fight as she explains how they overcome the height disadvantage. “Anything side by side works. Anything in frame is very difficult to do… We make it work.” Let’s remember her previous partnership with Iman Shumpert led them to win the Mirrorball Trophy in Season 30, beating out fitness coach Cody Rigsby and his partner Cheryl Burke, among others.

With just five more competitors, Dwight Howard will surely eye another accolade and not bypass the $50,000 prize. The next episode won’t be returning this Tuesday but will return on November 12. And the NBA champions fans would be hoping for another 10/10 performance.