PHOENIX — Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith left Thursday’s game against Phoenix early in the third quarter when his left foot turned the wrong way when he was trying to get down into a defensive stance. Nesmith crawled to the sideline before timeout was called and had to be helped off the floor into the locker room. The Pacers announced the injury as knee soreness and that Nesmith will not return.
The Pacers were already missing seven players going into Thursday’s game and have been short-handed all season. Nesmith had missed just one game prior to Thursday night and entered the game averaging a career-high 16.0 points per game on a career-high 13.8 field goal attempts per game. His efficiency numbers were way down in part because of the need for him to add shooting volume. He entered the game shooting 37.0% from the floor and 37.5% from 3-point range after making 50.7% of his field goals and 43.1% of his 3-pointers last season.
Nesmith scored 10 points on 3 of 9 shooting on Thursday night and had five points early in the third quarter prior to the injury.
