Pacers’ Bennedict Mathurin to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery
Indiana Pacers second-year guard Bennedict Mathurin will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum, ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report Saturday.
According to the press release, the procedure will be performed by renowned surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles, Calif., next week. He last played on March 5 against the Dallas Mavericks, logging 25 minutes. He had 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting and 2-of-7 from 3-point range.
Mathurin, 21, had an encouraging, more consistent second season with Indiana. He finishes the season averaging 14.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists, shooting 44.6 percent from the floor, 37.4 percent from 3-point range and 82.1 percent from the free-throw line across 59 games. He nearly averaged as many points on a per-possession basis as he did as a rookie, despite his free throw rate dipping nearly 14 percentage points.
After trading away Bruce Brown and Buddy Hield ahead of the deadline, Mathurin’s injury becomes even more unfortunate for the Pacers. Indiana is currently the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, a 0.5 game behind the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers–who are tied for the No. 6 seed–two games back of the Orlando Magic and 2.5 back of the New York Knicks.
The Pacers have the NBA’s ninth-hardest schedule the rest of the way, per Tankathon. This offense is still explosive minus Mathurin, but it will have to lean even more into Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, T.J. McConnell and perhaps rookie Ben Sheppard, among others.
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This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.
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