Rick Carlisle discusses the Pacers’ 133-98 loss to the Suns
The Pacers lost their sixth straight game and fell to 1-11 but Rick Carlisle said there’s reason for hope regarding Aaron Nesmith’s injury.
PHOENIX — Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith left Thursday’s game against Phoenix early in the third quarter when his left foot turned the wrong way when he was trying to get down into a defensive stance. Nesmith crawled to the sideline before timeout was called and had to be helped off the floor into the locker room. The Pacers announced the injury as knee soreness and that Nesmith will not return.
Nesmith left the Mortgage Matchup Center after the Pacers’ 133-98 loss walking with a limp with what appeared to be an ice bag on the knee, but he was walking on two legs without crutches. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said the team has reason to believe a worst-case scenario — such as a ligament tear — was avoided.
“Hoping that Aaron’s situation is not very serious,” Carlisle said. “At this point, it looks like we may have dodged a bullet, he may have dodged a bullet in terms of something that is very serious. But he will miss some time.”
The 1-11 Pacers were already missing seven players going into Thursday’s game and have been short-handed all season, starting with the Achilles tendon tear suffered by Tyrese Haliburton in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Nesmith had missed just one game this season prior to Thursday night and entered the game averaging a career-high 16.0 points per game on a career-high 13.8 field goal attempts per game. His efficiency numbers were way down in part because of the need for him to add shooting volume. He entered the game shooting 37.0% from the floor and 37.5% from 3-point range after making 50.7% of his field goals and 43.1% of his 3-pointers last season, but he had scored in double figures in all but two games. He had 31 points in the Pacers’ only win this season against Golden State and scored 25 on 7 of 10 shooting in their loss to the Nuggets on Saturday.
Nesmith scored 10 points on 3 of 9 shooting on Thursday night and had five points early in the third quarter prior to the injury. He’s arguably the Pacers’ most versatile defender and one of their toughest players and played a critical role in their playoff runs each of the last two seasons. In their NBA Finals run he made more 3-pointers (60) than any other player in the playoffs and made 49.2% of his attempts. He keyed the Pacers’ remarkable comeback in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals with the Knicks with eight 3-pointers on nine attempts and 30 total points.
“It hurts,” Carlisle said. “He’s a top player on this team. It hurt us out there tonight and it’s going to affect us.”