{"id":517195,"date":"2026-01-05T01:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T01:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/517195\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T01:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T01:42:15","slug":"pacers-lose-key-piece-indefinitely-amid-career-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/517195\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers Lose Key Piece Indefinitely Amid Career Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the old saying goes: when it rains, it pours. Without star point guard Tyrese Haliburton in the fold, the Indiana Pacers (6-29) have struggled immensely this season, as was expected. However, they\u2019re now set to be without another key backcourt piece, which would put a damper on their ability to turn their season around.<\/p>\n<p>Pacers Lose Bennedict Mathurin To Injury Amid Career Season<\/p>\n<p>Fourth-year wing Bennedict Mathurin will be out indefinitely with a right thumb sprain, according to HoopsHype insider Michael Scotto. Though he\u2019s currently averaging a career-high 17.8 points per game, he\u2019s converting a career-low 42.3% of his field goal attempts. Over the past 15 games, he\u2019s made just 40.2% of his field goals, including 37.9% of his mid-range attempts and 43.8% of his layup attempts.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin has tried to play through his right thumb sprain for a few weeks but will now need some time to fully heal, league sources told <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hoopshype?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">@hoopshype<\/a>. Mathurin, who was out for today\u2019s game against the Magic, has averaged a career-high 17.8 points. <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MpPsoAlwu0\">pic.twitter.com\/MpPsoAlwu0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeAScotto\/status\/2007968048507126243?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">January 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>At the beginning of the season, Mathurin suffered a right great toe sprain that sidelined him for 11 games. In that stretch, the Pacers went 1-10.<\/p>\n<p>How Will The Pacers Handle Mathurin\u2019s Absence?<\/p>\n<p>With Mathurin out, the Pacers will certainly lean on veteran starter Aaron Nesmith more than usual. In fact, Nesmith attempted 16 field goals on Sunday when Indy faced the Orlando Magic. For reference, he took just six shots in the previous game.<\/p>\n<p>Rookie Kam Jones, second-year pro Johnny Furphy and third-year wing Ben Sheppard could also see an uptick in minutes or attempts.<\/p>\n<p>This season, Nesmith is averaging a career-high 14.8 points per game. Yet, he\u2019s shooting an uninspiring 38.6% from the field. Furphy, Jones, and Sheppard are averaging 13.7 points per game combined. With that being said, Indiana isn\u2019t necessarily lean on wing depth. However, the players behind Mathurin lack experience, his scoring instincts, or both. Frankly, this is the issue not only with Mathurin being out of the lineup right now but the idea of moving on from him in the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>If there\u2019s a silver lining, it\u2019s that Indy\u2019s projected to land the top pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. With that pick, the Pacers wouldn\u2019t just be able to replace Mathurin if negotiations didn\u2019t go to their liking during his free agency. They\u2019d also have the opportunity to draft one of the highly-touted prospects thought to have All-Star potential.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the old saying goes: when it rains, it pours. Without star point guard Tyrese Haliburton in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[280,7,363,113,126,3866,6,15113,114],"class_list":{"0":"post-517195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-aaron-nesmith","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-bennedict-mathurin","11":"tag-indiana","12":"tag-indiana-pacers","13":"tag-indianapacers","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nba-injuries","16":"tag-pacers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115839955426820154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}