The Indiana Pacers’ injury crisis keeps getting worse.
Already without star Tyrese Haliburton and several other key players, the Pacers suffered another blow when forward Aaron Nesmith was diagnosed with a left knee injury that will sideline him for at least one month, according to Pacers coach Rick Carlisle.
“It’s likely going to be at least four weeks,” Carlisle said Saturday. “Talk to me on (December) the 15th. But it’s very good news — very, very good news. He’s not in a brace. He’s walking. I say it’s likely going to be four weeks. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be less. It’s unclear at this time. But he’s doing very well, and the news was very, very good.”
The 26-year-old Nesmith suffered the injury during the third quarter of the Pacers’ 133-98 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Thursday. While trying to defend Suns star Devin Booker, Nesmith stepped on a teammate’s foot, causing his left leg to bend unnaturally at the knee while he slipped. He rolled on the ground, slammed his fist against the floor, attempting to sit up before finally lying back as the Pacers’ training staff attended to him.
The broadcast caught Carlisle grimacing while walking off the bench during the ensuing timeout. Nesmith is averaging a career-high 16 points this season after supplying important 3-point shooting and perimeter defense during the Pacers’ run to the NBA Finals last season.
Carlisle also said Bennedict Mathurin, who hasn’t played since Oct. 25 because of a great toe sprain, went through a simulated game Saturday morning and is closer to returning.
Indiana, which fell to 1-11 after Thursday’s loss, has been besieged by injuries since pushing the Oklahoma City Thunder to a seventh game in last season’s finals. Haliburton tore his Achilles tendon during the first quarter of that game and is not expected to return this season. Mathurin, Haliburton’s replacement in the starting lineup, appeared in just two games this season before suffering a toe sprain, while key reserve Obi Toppin is out until at least February with a stress fracture in his foot.
Indiana has also played long stretches without guard Andrew Nembhard, who just returned from a shoulder injury, and jitterbug reserve T.J. McConnell, who missed the first 10 games of this season with a hamstring strain. The team has been granted multiple hardship exceptions by the NBA to fill out its roster while players recover.
Those absences, combined with center Myles Turner’s departure to the rival Milwaukee Bucks in free agency, have relegated last season’s Eastern Conference champions to the bottom of the conference this season. Of the eight players to log at least 20 minutes in Game 7 of last season’s finals, only one (Pascal Siakam) has played in a majority of the Pacers’ games this season.