INDIANAPOLIS — One of the Indiana Pacers' leading scorers will miss the rest of the season due to injury.
Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin has been diagnosed with a torn labrum in his right shoulder that will require season-ending surgery, the team announced Saturday.
Mathurin will have the surgery next week in Los Angeles. The Pacers say he is expected to make a full recovery before next season.
Mathurin was averaging 14.5 points per game and shooting 44.6% from the field prior to the injury, making him the fourth-highest scorer on the roster behind Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner.
The Pacers have not yet announced who is expected to fill in for Mathurin's roster spot.
Mathurin played in 59 games this year for Indiana, starting a career-high 19 games.
It's a significant blow to the Pacers and tough news for a guy who was undoubtedly hitting his stride. Head coach Rick Carlisle said as much when reacting to the news.
"It's an enormous loss, obviously. A guy that's experiencing a tremendous amount of growth both years. A guy that is one of the future pillars of this franchise, not even any question about it. It doesn't matter if he was a starter this year or not. He's one of our top players, and he's one of the hardest workers that I've ever been around for a guy that's 20 years old," Carlisle said.
Myles Turner echoed Carlisle's sentiments.
"It's a big loss, there's no secret there," Turner said. "He was very integral to what we were doing this year. I think he was just starting to find his stride, too. Sixteen, 17 points per game, you can't just make up for it like that. You have to make up for it with our depth. We have to find a way to pick up in lapses that he provided for this team."
Carlisle said the only good news about it is that Mathurin is expected to be back for training camp ahead of next season.
"I know he'll be back sooner than expected," Carlisle said. "He's just like that. He just finds a way to prove people wrong, probably including doctors."