Indiana Pacers fans have dreaded it, but now, it is official: the team will be without Bennedict Mathurin and Obi Toppin for at least a week and month, respectively.
On Tuesday, head coach Rick Carlisle announced that Mathurin, who suffered a foot/toe injury during Indiana's loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, will be "week to week."
As for Toppin, who exited the Pacers' loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves due to right leg soreness, he will be out for at least a month, according to Carlisle.
Rick Carlisle says Benn Mathurin is going to be “week to week.” Said he’ll have more imaging in Indy. Said Obi Toppin is out at least a month.
— Dustin Dopirak (@DustinDopirak) October 28, 2025
It doesn't need to be said, but it's going to be anyway: this is a brutal development for the Pacers, who just can't seem to have things go their way to begin the new NBA season.
Everybody knew Indiana would take a step back once Tyrese Haliburton suffered an Achilles injury during Game 7 of the NBA Finals that will sideline him for the whole season. However, things have only gotten worse since then.
Not even a week into the season, the Pacers are already dealing with injuries to Mathurin, Toppin, Andrew Nembhard, T.J. McConnell, Johnny Furphy, Kam Jones, and Taelon Peter.
Largely because of their injuries, the Pacers have had a tough start to the season, currently sitting at 0-3 and being just one of three winless teams remaining in the league (the Brooklyn Nets and New Orleans Pelicans are 0-4 and 0-3, respectively). Furthermore, in a strange twist, it is actually their defense, which ranks 22nd in defensive rating, that is "carrying" the team as their offense is ranked as the third-worst.
And that's where another problem lies.
The Pacers' offense doesn't look like how it's supposed to, and this is 99% because of the injuries they are dealing with (the 1% is due to them still struggling to find Myles Turner's replacement, which almost doesn't even look like their biggest problem anymore). And with Mathurin and Toppin out for a while, Indiana will now need to find new ways to generate offense, which it is clearly already struggling to do.
How the Pacers move forward without Bennedict Mathurin or Obi Toppin
The Pacers have had a lot of problems to navigate through this season, but Mathurin and Toppin's performance were not among them.
Mathurin, who began the season as the Pacers' starting shooting guard, looked like a near MVP candidate in his new role.
In his first two games (and keep in mind he did not play in the fourth quarter at all against Memphis), the Canadian native averaged 31 points on 54.8% shooting from the field and 50% from beyond the arc. And, on top of that, he also averaged 7 rebounds and 2.5 assists.
Mathurin led the Pacers in scoring in each of their first two games, and his loss is going to be a lot for the team to overcome. Additionally, Toppin was also having a good start to his season, averaging 14 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1 steal in 2.5 games.
Without them, Indiana's offense is going to struggle even more. This is especially true without Mathurin, given how great he is at creating his own shot as an iso scorer.
However, they are not completely out of options.
As if it wasn't high enough already, Pascal Siakam's usage is about to be astronomically high. Fans know what he's capable of, and now, they're going to see it without any limitations.
Three games into the season, the Cameroon native averaged 26 points on 45.9% shooting from the floor and 42.1% from behind the line. Additionally, he averaged 10.3 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1.3 steals.
Siakam is far and away their best scoring option available, and he will have to get in his bag a lot more now that most of the defenses' attention will be on him.
Additionally, fans should expect to see an uptick in usage from players like Aaron Nesmith (who is shooting 47.1% on 7 three-point field goal attempts so far) and Jarace Walker.
The Pacers may want to remain competitive this season, but right now, they just need to stay afloat. This was already going to be a tough challenge for them, and it just got a whole lot more difficult. Still, with Carlisle leading the way, fans can never count the Pacers out, even when it is incredibly tempting to do so.