The injury-riddled Pacers suffered another one on Thursday as forward Aaron Nesmith suffered a left knee sprain. He won’t play in Saturday’s home game against the Raptors but head coach Rick Carlisle believes the team may have “dodged a bullet” regarding his injury, the Indianapolis Star’s Dustin Dopirak reports.
Nesmith suffered the injury in Phoenix when he got tangled up with teammate Jeremiah Robinson-Earl on the defensive end. Carlisle said the Pacers believed Nesmith had avoided a “very serious” injury. Nesmith is averaging a career-high 15.5 points per game.
We have more from the Central Division:
- The injury-depleted Pistons made it nine in a row with a win over Philadelphia on Friday. They rallied from a 12-point, third-quarter deficit despite Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson and Tobias Harris watching in street clothes from the bench. “They’ve just got a nastiness to them, and that’s the fun part about our group,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said, per Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. “They like it when it gets thick. They like it when it gets messy and it gets ugly. That’s where they thrive. We like to take people there; we like to push people’s buttons and see how they respond. We’ve just got a bunch of nasty dogs in that locker room, and they love it.”
- The Cavaliers didn’t reach the Finals last season despite being a top seed. That’s why Donovan Mitchell isn’t concerned about regaining the No. 1 seed this season. “That’s it — playing well at the right time,” Mitchell told D.J. Siddiqi of VideoGamer.com. “Would we love to do both? 1,000%. I’m not going to sit here and say we wouldn’t want to be the number one seed. At the same token, we saw last year that you can do all the things, but if you’re not ready when that time goes and if you’re not necessarily healthy, it doesn’t really matter what you’ve done during the regular season. “Would I love to be the No. 1 seed? Sure. But if we’re not, am I going to be panicking? No. As long as we’re playing our best basketball at the right time, that’s all that really matters.”
- The Bucks are off to an 8-5 start and The Athletic’s Eric Nehm shares his thoughts on what he’s seen from the team this season.