On Monday, the Indiana Pacers dropped to 0-3 on the young 2025 NBA season with a narrow road loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Pacers have been finding ways to keep things competitive in the first three games of the season but are clearly feeling the effects of not having Tyrese Haliburton in the lineup so far.

Making matters worse is the fact that two of Indiana's key players for this year, Bennedict Mathurin and Obi Toppin, have both already gone down with injury, and on Tuesday, the team got an update on both players that wasn't exactly encouraging.

“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,” reported Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star on X, formerly Twitter.

Mathurin was thought by many to be a most improved player candidate coming into this year, and he got off to a hot start in the Pacers' first game of the year against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but will now have to spend some time on the sidelines due to the injury.

A transitional year for the Pacers

Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin (00) reacts to a foul called against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first half at Target Center.
Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images
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Any realistic chance that the Indiana Pacers had of competing in 2025-26 went away when Tyrese Haliburton went down with a torn Achilles injury in Game 7 of the NBA Finals against Oklahoma City. While it's true that the Pacers were able to win many playoff games last year with Haliburton putting up relatively pedestrian or even downright poor stat lines, he is still the engine that makes their offense run, and obviously makes things happen at the end of games, coming off arguably the clutchest playoff run of all time a season ago.
Still, the Pacers were hoping that Haliburton would be the only injury concern they'd face this year, and so far, that unfortunately has not been the case. The Pacers will next take the court on Wednesday evening on the road against the Dallas Mavericks at 8:30 PM ET.