Thursday night's NBA action brought a rematch of the 2025 NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers. Alas, the Pacers no longer have the team of yore; they don't have Myles Turner on the roster anymore, and Tyrese Haliburton is likely to miss the entirety of the 2025-26 campaign after rupturing his Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Making matters worse for the shorthanded Pacers is the fact that Andrew Nembhard, whom many believed entering the season, was in for a big year, had to exit proceedings early against the Thunder in their '25-'26 season-opener (as per ClutchPoints NBA insider Brett Siegel). Nembhard sustained a shoulder injury after he had his arm wrapped up by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and this was at least deemed serious enough to warrant an early end to his first game of the new season.

The play above occurred with 9:11 remaining in the first quarter, so it's not like the Pacers guard immediately felt writhing pain after being entangled with Gilgeous-Alexander.

Nonetheless, it certainly looks as though this play hampered Nembhard's performance for the entirety of the first half, and perhaps the pain in his shoulder flared up at halftime. One thing's for certain: the Pacers are not about to risk the health of one of their most important players, especially with two of the team's best point guards, Haliburton and TJ McConnell, currently on the shelf with injuries.

The Pacers started the second half with Ben Sheppard in Nembhard's place. Nembhard finished the night with just four points and four assists as he missed all five of his field-goal attempts and turned the ball over twice.

Fans hit Andrew Nembhard with gambling allegations after early exit for the Pacers

Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard (2) shoots the ball against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort (5) during the third quarter in game one of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center with Pacers' Ben Mathurin in the background
Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

With the Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier gambling-related arrests shocking the entire NBA world, fans are being more critical of players, vigilant of how some of them might be guilty of some illicit betting activities.

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For some fans, Nembhard's early exit from the Pacers and Thunder's NBA Finals rematch was very alarming to the point where they were calling on the FBI to investigate him.

“He’s betting investigate this s**t,” X user @LeftyyGM wrote.

“FBI please check into Andrew Nembhard’s FanDuel account,” @TheRealSteve8 added.

“Feds obviously missed Andrew Nembhard in the sweep,” @fullyautogoon furthered.

“I need the FBI to look into andrew nembhard injury from tonights game cause thats mad suspect,” @splashlifeshula pointed out.

“FBI check into nembhard hurt shoulder my a**,” @Halfrican_Jenks implored.