Bennedict Mathurin is maintaining a glass-half-full outlook as the Indiana Pacers aim to end an eight-game losing streak when they take on the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday in Indianapolis.
Indiana currently has the worst record in the league, after just last season taking the Oklahoma City Thunder to seven games in the NBA Finals.
But Mathurin is optimistic the Pacers are just one winning streak away from finding themselves back in contention.
“We’re 1-13 right now, (but) there are teams in the NBA that have won 10 games in a row,” he said after Indiana’s 127-112 loss to the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons on Monday. “Why can’t we be a team that wins 10 games in a row? It’s about believing, about doing what’s right for our team.
“… We’ve just got to stick to it. People act like it’s the end of the world. If it was 1-57, I’d say maybe, but 1-13 – we’ve played 14 games. It’s not even 15% of the season. I’m still positive. . … I’m really excited. We’ve lost a lot of games, but, like I said, it’s pretty early. We’ve got a chance to turn things back around. I’m a full believer of that.”
Pascal Siakam posted 29 points and seven rebounds against Detroit, while Mathurin scored 25 in his first game back after missing the previous 11 with a sprained right toe.
Mathurin came out rusty, with two points and three fouls in the first half, before scoring nine and 14 in the last two quarters.
“(His) first half was rough because of the fouls,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “(Mathurin) couldn’t get anything going rhythm-wise. Third quarter, he got a rhythm. He had a great stretch in the second half, which was great to see.”
The bigger issue for Indiana was the turnovers. The Pacers had 21 of them against the Pistons, which were converted into 30 points.
When asked if he saw anything thematic in that high number, Carlisle responded: “Yeah, throw it to the team in blue (Detroit) and not the team in white (Indiana).
“They were physical, they pressure full court. They play with a lot of physicality, friction and they forced us into some stuff. And some of it was unforced. The unforced stuff is the stuff we’ve got to clean up.”
Charlotte is on a three-game skid of its own after suffering a nail-biting 110-108 road loss to the Toronto Raptors on Monday.
Toronto’s RJ Barrett scored the tiebreaking basket with 18 seconds left in the fourth quarter before Ryan Kalkbrenner, Miles Bridges and Collin Sexton were all unable to equalize for the Hornets in the dying seconds.
Kon Knueppel had 24 points, Bridges contributed 22 and LaMelo Ball added 20.
“I feel like down the stretch, we have to close games a lot better,” said Sexton, who scored 17 points. “This is a learning experience. We’re going to continue to learn from it.”
Charlotte coach Charles Lee was proud of the spirit his team showed.
“I loved the fight, the competitiveness,” he said. “I liked our process on a lot of the plays that we had at the end of the game. I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win with our execution, with our ability to create some open shots or some offensive rebounds.”
