(Paradise) Bennedict Mathurin showed a good taste of his talent in his NBA Summer League debut on Friday, scoring 23 points in the Indiana Pacers’ 96-84 win over the Charlotte Hornets.
Posted at 8:36 p.m.
Drafted sixth last month, the Montrealer led his team in points, also registering four rebounds and a steal.
Mathurin went 3-for-6 on three-pointers and 2-for-2 from the free throw line.
On ESPN’s microphone during the game, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle and one of the club’s important cogs, Tyrese Haliburton, each had good words for the young man from Montreal North.
Carlisle commented on his strong start and his involvement in defense, while Haliburton spoke of the intensity in Mathurin’s game.
The six-foot-six, 210-pound athlete spent two seasons with the University of Arizona.
The Pac-12 Player of the Year, Mathurin improved his points per game average from 10.8 to 17.7 from his rookie season to the second.
He turned 20 on June 19.
Mathurin grew up in the same corner of the metropolis as his good friend Luguentz Dort, an impact player with the Thunder for three years.
The other Quebecers on the Silver circuit are Chris Boucher and Khem Birch, of the Raptors. Of the lot, only Mathurin was fished out.
Since 2014, Indiana has been beaten in the first round five years in a row, failing to reach the playoffs on other occasions.
In reconstruction, the team is coming off its worst season since the mid-1980s, going 25-57.
Indiana had a lot of success in the 1990s, with Reggie Miller and Mark Jackson in particular.
In the Summer League, the Pacers will also face the Kings, Pistons and Wizards, from July 10 to 15.